en) 


LIBRARY 


BL    2750    .L4    1872   v.l 
Lecky,    William   Edward 

Hartpole,    1838-190  3. 
History  of   the   rise   and 

i  n flnftnrp    n-^    tb- S-Q-Lr  i ■ 


^ 


RATIOITALISM     IJ^    EUEOPE 


VOL.  I. 


H I S  T  O  E  Y 


EISE    AISTD    Il^FLTJElsrOE 


OF   THE    SPIRIT   OF 


RATIOl^rALISM    W   EUROPE. 


BY 

W.    E.    II.    LECKY,    M.A, 

IIRVISED   EDITION. 

IN    TWO    VOLUMES. 
VOL.    L 


E'EW  YOEK: 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

5  4  9    &    5  5  1    BROADWAY. 

1872. 


IN'TEODUCTIOW, 


DuEiNG  the  fierce  theological  controversies  that  accom- 
panied and  followed  the  Eeformation,  while  a  judicial  spirit 
was  as  3^et  unknown,  wdiile  each  party  imagined  itself  the 
representative  of  absolute  and  necessary  truth  in  opposi- 
tion to  absolute  and  fatal  error,  and  while  the  fluctuations 
of  belief  were  usually  attributed  to  direct  miraculous  agency, 
it  was  natural  that  all  the  causes  of  theological  changes 
should  have  been  sought  exclusively  within  the  circle  of 
theology.  Each  theologian  imagined  that  the  existence  of 
the  opinions  he  denounced  was  fully  accounted  for  by  the  ex- 
ertions of  certain  evil-minded  men,  wdio  had  triumphed  by 
means  of  sophistical  arguments,  aided  by  a  judicial  blindness 
that  had  been  cast  upon  the  deluded.  His  own  opinions 
on  the  other  hand,  had  been  sustained  or  revived  by  apos- 
tles raised  for  the  purpose,  illuminated  by  special  in- 
spiration, and  triumphing  by  the  force  of  theological  argu- 
ments. As  long  as  this  point  of  view  conthmed,  the  posi- 
tion of  the  theologian  and  of  the  ecclesiastical  historian  was 
nearly  the  same.  Each  was  confined  to  a  single  province, 
and  each,  recognising  a  primitive  faith  as  his  ideal,  had  to 
indicate  the  successive  innovations  upon  its  purity.     But 


0  LN'TEODUCTION. 

wlien  towards  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  centnrj  the  de« 
cline  of  theological  passions  enabled  men  to  discuss  these 
matters  in  a  calmer  spirit,  and  when  increased,  knowledge 
produced  more  comprehensive  views,  the  historical  standing- 
point  was  materially  altered.  It  was  observed,  that  every 
great  change  of  belief  had  been  preceded  by  a  great  change 
in  the  intellectual  condition  of  Europe,  that  the  success  of 
any  opinion  depended  much  less  upon  the  force  of  its  ar- 
guments, or  upon  the  ability  of  its  advocates,  than  upon 
the  predisposition  of  society  to  receive  it,  and  that  that 
predisposition  resulted  from  the  intellectual  type  of  the  age. 
As  men  advance  from  an  imperfect  to  a  higher  civilisation, 
they  gradually  sublimate  and  refine  their  creed.  Their 
imaginations  insensibly  detach  themselves  from  those  gross- 
er conceptions  and  doctrines  that  were  formerly  most  pow- 
erful, and  they  sooner  or  later  reduce  all  their  opinions 
into  conformity  with  the  moral  and  intellectual  standards 
which  the  new  civilisation  produces.  Thus,  long  before  the 
Reformation,  the  tendencies  of  the  Eeformation  were  man- 
ifest. The  revival  of  Grecian  learning,  the  development  of 
art,  the  reaction  against  the  schoolmen,  had  raised  society 
to  an  elevation  in  which  a  more  refined  and  less  oppressive 
creed  was  absolutely  essential  to  its  well-being.  Luther 
and  Calvin  only  represented  the  prevailing  wants,  and  em- 
bodied them  in  a  definite  form.  The  pressure  of  the  gene- 
ral intellectual  influences  of  the  time  determines  the  pre- 
dispositions which  ultimately  regulate  the  details  of  belief ; 
and  thougli  all  men  do  not  yield  to  that  pressure  with  tlie 
same  facility,  all  large  bodies  are  at  last  controlled.  A 
change  of  speculative  opinions  does  not  iniply  an  increase 


DsTK.ODUCTIOX.  i 

of  the  data  upon  which  those  opinions  rest,  but  a  change 
of  the  habits  of  thought  and  mind  which  they  reflect. 
Definite  arguments  are  the  symptoms  and  pretexts,  but 
seldom  the  causes  of  the  change.  Their  chief  merit  is  to 
accelerate  the  inevitable  crisis.  They  derive  their  force 
and  efficacy  from  their  conformity  with  the  mental  habits 
of  those  to  whom  they  are  addressed.  Eeasoning  which  in 
one  age  would  make  no  impression  whatever,  in  the  next 
age  is  received  with  enthusiastic  applause.  It  is  one  thing 
to  understand  its  nature,  but  quite  another  to  appreciate 
its  force. 

And  this  standard  of  belief,  this  tone  and  habit  of 
thought,  which  is  the  supreme  arbiter  of  the  opinions  of 
successive  periods,  is  created,  not  by  the  influences  arising 
out  of  any  one  department  of  intellect,  but  by  the  combi- 
nation of  all  the  intellectual  and  even  social  tendencies  of 
the  age.  Those  who  contribute  most  largely  to  its  for- 
mation are,  I  believe,  the  philosophers.  Men  like  Bacon, 
Descartes,  and  Locke  have  probably  done  more  than  any 
others  to  set  the  current  of  their  age.  They  have  formed 
a  certain  cast  and  tone  of  mind.  They  have  introduced 
peculiar  habits  of  thought,  new  modes  of  reasoning,  new 
tendencies  of  enquiry.  The  impulse  they  have  given  to 
the  higher  literature,  has  been  by  that  literature  commu- 
nicated to  the  more  popular  writers ;  and  the  impress  of 
tliese  master-minds  is  clearly  visible  in  the  writings  of 
multitudes  who  are  totally  unacquainted  with  their  works. 
But  philosophical  methods,  great  and  unquestionable  as  is 
their  power,  form  but  one  of  the  many  influences  that 
contribute  to  the  mental  habits  of  society.     Thus  the  dis- 


8  INTRODUCTIOX. 

coveries  of  physical  science,  cntrencliiug  upon  the  domain 
of  the  anomalous  and  the  incomprehensible,  enlarging  our 
conceptions  of  the  range  of  law,  and  revealing  the  connec- 
tion of  phenomena  that  had  formerly  appeared  altogether 
isolated,  form  a  habit  of  mind  which  is  carried  far  beyond 
the  limits  of  physics.  Thus  the  astronomical  discovery, 
that  our  world  is  not  the  centre  and  axis  of  the  material 
universe,  but  is  an  inconsiderable  planet  occupying  to  all 
appearance  an  altogether  insignificant  and  subordinate  po- 
sition, and  revolving  with  many  others  around  a  sun  which 
is  itself  but  an  infinitesimal  point  in  creation,  in  as  far  as 
it  is  realised  by  the  imagination,  has  a  vast  and  palpable 
influence  upon  our  theological  conceptions.  Thus  the 
commercial  or  municipal  spirit  exhibits  certain  habits  of 
thought,  certain  modes  of  reasoning,  certain  repugnances 
and  attractions,  which  make  it  invariably  tend  to  one  class 
of  opinions.  To  encourage  the  occupations  that  produce 
this  spirit,  is  to  encourage  the  opinions  that  are  most  con- 
genial to  it.  It  is  impossible  to  lay  down  a  railway  with- 
out creating  an  intellectual  influence.  It  is  probable  that 
Watt  and  Stephenson  will  eventually  modify  the  opinions 
of  mankind  almost  as  profoundly  as  Luther  or  Yoltaire. 

If  these  views  be  correct,  they  establish  at  once  a  broad 
distinction  between  the  province  of  the  theologian  and 
tliat  of  the  historian  of  oi^inioiis.  The  first  confines  his 
attention  to  the  question  of  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  par-^ 
ticular  doctrines,  wliieh  he  ascertains  by  examining  the 
arguments  upon  which  they  rest ;  the  second  should  en- 
deavour to  trace  the  causes  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  those 
doctrines  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  general  intellectual 


mTKODUCTION.  9 

condition  of  the  a<2:e.  Tlie  first  is  restricted  to  a  sincjle 
department  of  mental  phenomena,  and  to  those  logical 
connections  which  determine  the  opinions  of  the  severe 
reasoner ;  the  second  is  obliged  to  take  a  wide  survey  of 
the  intellectual  influences  of  the  period  he  is  describing, 
and  to  trace  that  connection  of  congruity  which  has  a 
much  greater  influence  upon  the  sequence  of  opinions  than 
loo-ical  ar<i:uments. 

Although  in  the  present  work  we  are  concerned  only 
with  the  last  of  these  two  points  of  view,  it  will  be  neces- 
sary to  consider  briefly  the  possibility  of  their  coexistence  ; 
for  this  question  involves  one  of  the  mo»t  important  prob- 
lems in  history — the  position  reserved  for  the  individual 
will  and  the  individual  judgment  in  the  great  current  of 
general  causes. 

It  was  a  saying  of  Locke,  that  we  should  not  ask 
whether  our  will  is  free,  but  whether  we  are  free ;  for  our 
conception  of  freedom  is  the  power  of  acting  according  to 
our  will,  or,  in  other  words,  the  consciousness,  when  ^^nr- 
suing  a  certain  course  of  action,  that  we  might,  if  we  had 
chosen,  have  pursued  a  diflerent  one.  If,  however,  push- 
ing our  analysis  still  further,  we  ask  what  it  is  that 
determines  our  volition,  I  conceive  that  the  highest  prin- 
ciples of  liberty  w^e  are  capable  of  attaining  are  to  be 
found  in  the  two  facts,  that  our  will  is  a  faculty  distinct 
from  our  desires,  and  that  it  is  not  a  mere  passive  thing, 
the  direction  and  intensity  of  which  are  necessarily  deter- 
mined by  the  attraction  and  repulsion  of  pleasure  and 
pain.  We  are  conscious  that  we  are  capable  of  pm-suing  a 
course  which  is  extremely  distasteful,  rather  than  anothet 


10  INTKODUCTION. 

course  wliicli  would  be  extremely  agreeable ;  that  in  doing 
&o  Ave  are  making  a  continual  and  painful  effort ;  that 
every  relaxation  of  that  effort  produces  the  most  lively 
pleasure ;  and  that  it  is  at  least  possible  that  tlie  motive 
which  induces  us  to  j^i^ii'sue  tne  path  of  self-abnegation, 
may  be  a  sense  of  right  altogether  uninfluenced  by  pros- 
pects of  future  reward.  We  are  also  conscious  that  if 
our  desires  act  powerfully  upon  our  will,  our  will  can  in 
its  turn  act  upon  our  desires.  AYe  can  strengthen  the 
natural  powers  of  our  will  by  steadily  exerting  it.  We 
can  diminish  the  intensity  of  our  desires  by  habitually  re- 
pressing them ;  ^ye  can  alter,  by  a  process  of  mental  disci- 
pline, the  whole  symmetry  of  our  j^assions,  deliberately 
selecting  one  class  for  gratification  and  for  development, 
and  crushing  and  subduing  the  others.  These  considera- 
tions do  not,  of  course,  dispel  the  mystery  which  perhaps 
necessarily  rests  upon  the  subject  of  free-will.  They  do 
not  solve  the  questions,  whether  the  will  can  ever  act 
without  a  motive,  or  what  are  its  relations  to  its  motives, 
or  whether  the  desires  may  not  sometimes  be  too  strong 
for  its  most  developed  powers ;  but  they  form  a  theory  of 
human  liberty  which  I  believe  to  be  the  highest  we  can 
attain.  lie  who  has  realised,  on  the  one  hand,  his  power 
of  acting  according  to  his  will,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
power  of  his  will  to  emancipate  itself  from  the  empire  of 
l)ain  and  pleasure,  and  to  modify  and  control  the  current 
of  the  emotions,  has  probably  touched  the  limits  of  his 
freedom. 

The  struggle  of  the  will  for  a  right  motive  against  the 
pressure  of  the  desires,  is  one  of  the  chief  forms  of  virtue; 


INTRODUCTION.  H 

and  tlie  relative  position  of  these  two  influences,  one  of  tlie 
chief  measures  of  the  moral  standing  of  each  individnal. 
Sometimes,  in  the  conflict  between  the  will  and  a  particu- 
lar desire,  the  former,  either  through  its  own  natural 
strength,  or  through  the  natural  weakness  of  its  opponent. 
or  through  the  process  of  mental  discipline  I  have  describ 
ed,  has  obtained  a  supreme  ascendency  which  is  seldom 
or  never  seriously  disturbed.  Sometimes,  through  causes 
that  are  innate,  and  perhaps  more  frequently  through  causes 
for  which  we  are  responsible,  the  two  powers  exhibit  al- 
most an  equipoise,  and  each  often  succumbs  to  the  other. 
Between  these  two  positions  there  are  numerous  grada- 
tions ;  so  that  every  cause  that  in  any  degree  intensifies  the 
desires,  gives  them  in  some  cases  a  triumph  over  the  will. 

The  application  of  these  principles  to  those  constantly- 
recurring  figures  which  moral  statistics  present  is  not  diffi- 
cult. The  statistician,  for  example,  shows  that  a  certain 
condition  of  temperature  increases  the  force  of  a  passion — 
or,  in  other  words,  the  temptation  to  a  particular  vice ; 
and  he  then  proceeds  to  argue,  that  the  whole  history  of 
that  vice  is  strictly  regulated  by  atmospheric  changes. 
The  vice  rises  into  prominence  with  the  rising  tempera- 
ture; it  is  sustained  during  its  continuance,  it  declines 
with  its  decline.  Year  after  year,  the  same  figures  and 
the  same  variations  are  nearly  reproduced.  Investigations 
in  the  most  dissimilar  nations  only  strengthen  the  proof; 
and  the  evidence  is  so  ample,  that  it  enables  us,  within 
certain  limits,  even  to  predict  the  future.  The  rivers  that 
rise  and  fall  with  the  winter  torrents  or  the  summer 
drought ;  the  insect  life  that  is  called  into  benig  by  the 


12  IXTKODUCTIOX. 

genial  spring,  and  destroyed  by  tlie  returning  frost ;  tlie 
aspect  of  vegetation,  wliicli  pursues  its  appointed  changes 
tlirouo:li  the  recurrino*  seasons :  these  do  not  reflect  more 
faithfully  or  obey  more  implicitly  external  influences,  than 
do  some  great  departments  of  the  acts  of  man. 

This  is  the  fact  which  statistical  tables  prove,  but  what 
is  the  inference  to  be  deduced  from  them  ?  Kot,  surely, 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  free-will,  but,  what  we 
should  have  regarded  as  antecedently  probable,  that  the 
degree  of  energy  with  which  it  is  exerted  is  in  different 
periods  nearly  the  same.  As  long  as  the  resistance  is 
unaltered,  the  fluctuations  of  our  desires  determine  the 
fluctuations  of  our  actions.  In  this  there  is  nothino;  extra- 
ordinary.  It  would  be  strange  indeed  if  it  were  otherwise 
— strange  if,  the  average  of  virtue  remaining  the  same,  or 
nearly  the  same,  an  equal  amount  of  solicitation  did  not 
at  different  periods  produce  the  same,  or  nearly  the  same, 
amount  of  compliance.  The  fact,  therefore,  that  there  is 
an  order  and  sequence  in  the  history  of  vice,  and  that 
influences  altogether  independent  of  human  control  con- 
tribute largely  to  its  course,  in  no  degree  destroys  the  free- 
dom of  will,  and  the  conclusion  of  the  historian  is  per 
fectly  reconcilable  with  the  principles  of  the  moralist. 
From  this  spectacle  of  regularity,  we  simply  infer  that  the 
changes  in  the  moral  condition  of  mankind  are  very  slow ; 
that  there  are  periods  when,  certain  desires  being  strength- 
ened by  natural  causes,  the  task  of  the  will  in  opposing 
them  is  peculiarly  arduous  ;  and  that  any  attempt  to  write 
a  history  of  vice  without  taking  into  consideration  exter-* 
nal  influences,  would  be  miserably  deficient. 


INTEODUCTION.  13 

Again,  if  we  turn  to  a  different  class  of  phenomena, 
uothino;  can  be  more  certain  to  an  attentive  observer,  tlian 
tliat  the  great  majority  even  of  those  who  reason  mucli 
about  their  opinions  liave  arrived  at  their  conclusions  by 
a  process  quite  distinct  from  reasoning.  They  may  be 
perfectly  unconscious  of  the  fact,  but  the  ascendency  of 
old  associations  is  upon  them ;  and,  in  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  cases,  men  of  the  most  various  creeds  conclude 
their  investigations  by  simply  acquiescing  in  the  opinions 
they  have  been  taught.  They  insensibly  judge  all  ques- 
tions by  a  mental  standard  derived  from  education  ;  they 
proportion  their  attention  and  sympathy  to  the  degree  in 
which  the  facts  or  arguments  presented  to  them  support 
their  foregone  conclusions ;  and  they  thus  speedily  con- 
vince themselves  that  the  arguments  in  behalf  of  their 
hereditary  opinions  are  irresistibly  cogent,  and  the  argu- 
ments against  them  exceedingly  absurd.  Nor  are  those 
who  have  diverged  from  the  opinions  they  have  been  taught 
necessarily  more  independent  of  illegitimate  influences. 
The  love  of  singularity,  the  ambition  to  be  thought  in- 
tellectually superior  to  others,  the  bias  of  taste,  the  attrac- 
tion of  vice,  the  influence  of  friendship,  the  magnetism  of 
genius, — these  and  countless  other  influences  into  which  it 
is  needless  to  enter,  all  determine  conclusions.  The  num- 
ber of  persons  who  have  a  rational  basis  for  their  belief  is 
probably  infinitesimal ;  for  illegitimate  influences  not  only 
deternune  the  convictions  of  those  who  do  not  examine, 
but  usually  give  a  dominating  bias  to  the  reasonings  of 
those  who  do.  But  it  would  be  manifestly  absurd  to  con- 
clude from  this,  that  reason  has  no  part  or  function  in  the 


14  IXTEODUCTION. 

formation  ot  opinions,  j^o  mind,  it  is  true,  was  ever  al- 
together free  from  distorting  influences  ;  but  in  tlie  struggle 
between  tlie  reason  and  tlie  affection  which  leads  to  truth, 
as  in  the  stru2:2:le  between  the  will  and  the  desires  which 
leads  to  virtue,  every  effort  is  crowned  with  a  measure  of 
success,  and  innumerable  gradations  of  j)rogres3  are  mani- 
fested. All  that  we  can  rightly  infer  is,  that  the  process 
of  reasoning  is  nmch  more  difficult  than  is  commonly  sup- 
posed ;  and  that  to  those  who  would  investigate  the 
causes  of  existing  opinions,  the  study  of  predispositions  is 
much  more  important  than  the  study  of  arguments. 

The  doctrine,  that  the  opinions  of  a  given  period  are 
mainly  determined  by  the  intellectual  condition  of  society, 
and  that  every  great  change  of  opinion  is  the  consequence 
of , general  causes,  simply  implies  that  there  exists  a  strong 
bias  which  acts  upon  all  large  masses  of  men,  and  eventu- 
ally triumphs  over  every  obstacle.  The  inequalities  of 
civilisation,  the  distorting  influences  arising  out  of  special 
circumstances,  the  force  of  conservatism,  and  the  efforts  of 
individual  genius,  produce  innumerable  diversities  ;  but  a 
careful  examination  shows  that  these  are  but  the  eddies  of 
an  advancino;  stream,  tliatthe  various  svstems  are  beino;  all 
gradually  modified  in  a  given  direction,  and  that  a  certain 
class  of  tendencies  appears  with  more  and  more  prominence 
in  all  departments  of  intellect.  Individuals  may  resist  the 
stream ;  and  this  power  supplies  a  firm  and  legitimate  stand- 
ing-point to  the  theologian  :  but  these  efforts  are  too  rare 
and  feeble  to  have  much  influence  upon  tlie  general  course. 

To  this  last  proposition  there  is,  however,  an  important 
exception  to  be  made  in  favour  of  men  of  genius,  who  are 


IXTEOD  UCTIOIT.  15 

commonly  at  once  representative  and  creative.  Tliey  em- 
body and  reflect  the  tendencies  of  tlieir  time,  bnt  tliey 
also  frequently  materially  modify  tliem,  and  tlieir  ideas 
become  the  subject  or  tlie  basis  of  the  succeeding  de- 
velopments. To  trace  in  every  great  movement  the 
part  wliich  belongs  to  the  individual  and  the  part  which 
belongs  to  general  causes,  without  exaggerating  either  side, 
is  one  of  the  most  delicate  tasks  of  the  historian. 

What  I  have  written  will,  I  trust,  be  sufiicient  to  show 
the  distinction  between  the  sphere  of  the  historian  and  the 
sphere  of  the  theologian.  It  must,  however,  be  ac- 
knowledged that  they  have  some  points  of  contact ;  for  it 
is  impossible  to  reveal  the  causes  that  called  an  opinion 
into  being  without  throwing  some  light  upon  its  intrinsic 
value.  It  must  bo  acknowledged,  also,  that  there  is  a 
theory  or  method  of  research  which  would  amalgamate  the 
two  spheres,  or,  to  speak  more  correctly,  would  entirely  sub- 
ordinate the  theologian  to  the  historian.  Those  who  have 
appreciated  the  extremely  small  influence  of  definite  argu- 
ments in  determining  the  opinions  either  of  an  individual 
or  of  a  nation — who  have  perceived  how  invariably  an  in- 
crease of  civilisation  implies  a  modification  of  belief,  and 
how  completely  the  controversialists  of  successive  ages  are 
the  puppets  and  the  unconscious  exponents  of  the  deep  un- 
der-current of  their  time,  will  feel  an  intense  distrust  of 
their  unassisted  reason,  and  will  naturally  look  for  some 
guide  to  direct  their  judgment.  I  think  it  must  be  admit- 
ted that  the  general  and  increasing  tendency,  in  the  pres- 
ent day,  is  to  seek  such  a  guide  in  the  collective  wisdom 
of  mankind  as  it  is  displayed  in  the  developments  of  history. 


16  IXTEODUCTIOX. 

In.  other  words,  tlie  way  in  wliicli  our  leading  thinkers,  oon- 
Bciously  or  unconsciously,  form  their  opinions,  is  by  endeav 
ouring  to  ascertain  what  are  the  laws  that  govern  tlie  succes- 
sive modifications  of  belief;  in  what  directions,  towards 
what  conceptions,  the  intellect  of  man  advances  with  the 
advance  of  civilisation  ;  what  are  the  leading  characteristics 
that  mark  the  belief  of  civilised  ages  and  nations  as  com- 
pared with  barbarous  ones,  and  of  the  most  educated  as 
compared  with  the  most  illiterate  classes.  This  mode  of 
reasoning  may  be  said  to  resolve  itself  into  three  problems. 
It  is  necessary,  in  the  first  place,  to  ascertain  what  are  the 
general  intellectual  tendencies  of  civilisation  ;  it  is  then  ne- 
cessary to  ascertain  how  far  those  tendencies  are  connected, 
or,  in  other  words,  how  far  the  existence  of  one  depends  upon 
and  implies  the  existence  of  the  others ;  and  it  is  necessary, 
in  the  last  place,  to  ascertain  whether  they  have  been  accom- 
panied by  an  increase  or  diminution  of  happiness,  of  virtue, 
and  of  humanity. 

My  object  in  the  present  work  has  been,  to  trace  the 
history  of  the  spirit  of  Rationalism ;  by  which  I  under- 
stand, not  any  class  of  definite  doctrines  or  criticisms,  but 
rather  a  certain  cast  of  tliought,  or  bias  of  reasoning,  which 
has  during  the  last  three  centuries  gained  a  marked  as- 
cendency in  Europe.  The  nature  of  this  bias  will  be  ex- 
hibited in  detail  in  the  ensuing  pages,  when  we  examine 
its  influence  upon  the  various  forms  of  moral  and  intellec- 
tual development.  At  present,  it  will  be  sufficient  to  say, 
that  it  leads  men  on  all  occasions  to  subordinate  dogmatic 
theology  to  the  dictates  of  reason  and  of  conscience,  and, 
as  a  neccssarv  consequence,  greatly  to  restrict  its  influence 


i:^iTnoDUCTiox.  IT 

aj)on  life.  It  predisposes  men,  in  history,  to  attribute  all 
kinds  of  plienomena  to  natural  rather  than  unraculoui 
causes ;  in  theology,  to  esteem  succeeding  systems  the  ex- 
pressions of  the  wants  and  aspirations  of  that  religious  sen- 
timent which  is  planted  in  all  men ;  and,  in  ethics,  to  regard 
as  duties  only  those  wdiich  conscience  reveals  to  be  such. 

It  is  manifest  that,  in  attempting  to  write  the  history 
of  a  mental  tendency,  some  difficulties  have  to  be  encoun- 
tered quite  distinct  from  those  which  attend  a  simple  rela- 
tion of  facts.  No  one  can  be  truly  said  to  understand  any 
great  system  of  belief,  if  he  has  not  in  some  degree  realised 
the  point  of  viev^^  from  which  its  arguments  assume  an 
appearance  of  plausibility  and  of  cogency,  the  habit  of 
thought  which  makes  its  various  doctrines  appear  probable, 
harmonious,  and  consistent.  Yet,  even  in  the  great  con- 
troversies of  the  present  day — even  in  the  disputes  between 
the  Catholic  and  the  Protestant,  it  is  evident  that  very  few 
controversialists  ever  succeed  in  arriving  at  this  apprecia- 
tion of  the  opinions  they  are  combating.  But  the  difficul- 
ty becomes  far  greater  when  our  research  extends  over 
forms  of  belief  of  which  there  are  no  living  representatives, 
and  w^hen  we  have  not  merely  to  estimate  the  different 
measures  of  probability  subsisting  in  diiferent  societies,  but 
have  also  to  indicate  their  causes  and  their  changes.  To 
reconstruct  the  modes  of  thought  which  produced  super- 
stitions that  have  long  since  vanished  from  among  us  ;  to 
trace  through  the  obscurity  of  the  distant  past  that  hidden 
bias  of  the  imagination  which — deeper  than  any  strife  of 
ai-guments,  deeper  than  any  change  of  creed — determines 
in  each  succeeding  age  the  realised  belief;  to  grasp  the 

VOL.  I. — 2 


18  IXTEODUCTIOX. 

principle  of  analogy  or  congruitj  according  to  wliicli  the  con- 
ceptions of  a  given  period  were  grouped  and  harmonised, 
and  then  to  show  how  the  discoveries  of  science,  or  the 
revolutions  in  philosophy,  or  the  developments  of  indus- 
trial or  political  life,  introduced  new  centres  of  attraction, 
and  made  the  force  of  analogy  act  in  new  directions ;  to 
follow  out  the  process  till  the  period  when  conclusions  the 
reason  had  once  naturally  and  almost  instinctively  adopted 
seem  incongruous  and  grotesque,  and  till  the  whole  current 
of  intellectual  tendencies  is  changed : — this  is  the  task 
which  devolves  upon  every  one  who,  not  content  with  re- 
lating the  fluctuations  of  opinions,  seeks  to  throw  some 
light  upon  the  laws  that  govern  them. 

Probably,  the  greatest  difficulty  of  such  a  process  of 
investigation  arises  from  the  wide  difference  between  pro- 
fessed and  realised  belief.  When  an  opinion  that  is  oppos- 
ed to  the  age  is  incapable  of  modification  and  is  an  ob- 
stacle to  progress,  it  will  at  last  be  openly  repudiated  ;  and 
if  it  is  identified  with  any  existing  interests,  or  associated 
with  some  eternal  truth,  its  rejection  will  be  accompanied 
by  paroxysms  of  painful  agitation.  But  much  more  fre- 
quently civilisation  makes  opinions  that  are  opposed  to  it 
simply  obsolete.  They  perish  by  indifference,  not  by  con- 
troversy. They  are  relegated  to  the  dim  twilight  land 
that  surrounds  every  living  faith  ;  the  land,  not  of  death, 
but  of  the  sliadow  of  death  ;  the  land  of  the  unrealised  and 
the  inoperative.  Sometimes,  too,  we  find  the  phraseology, 
the  ceremonies,  the  formularies,  the  external  aspect  of 
some  phase  of  belief  that  has  long  since  perished,  connect- 
ed with  a  system  that  has  been  created  by  the  wants  and 


CnTEODUCTION.  19 

is  tlirilling  with  the  life  of  modern  civilisation.  They  re- 
semble those  images  of  departed  ancestors,  which,  it  is  said, 
the  ancient  Ethiopians  were  accustomed  to  paint  upon  their 
bodies,  as  if  to  preserve  the  pleasing  illusion  that  those 
could  not  be  really  dead  whose  lineaments  were  still  visi- 
ble among  them,  and  were  still  associated  with  life.  In 
order  to  appreciate  the  change,  we  must  translate  these 
opinions  into  action,  must  examine  what  would  be  their 
effects  if  fully  realised,  and  ascertain  how  far  those  effects 
are  actually  produced.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  not 
merely  to  examine  successive  creeds,  but  also  to  study  the 
types  of  character  of  successive  ages. 

It  only  remains  for  me,  before  drawing  this  introduc- 
tion to  a  close,  to  describe  the  method  I  have  employed  in 
tracing  the  influence  of  the  rationalistic  spirit  upon  opin- 
ions. In  the  first  place,  I  have  examined  the  history  and 
the  causes  of  that  decline  of  the  sense  of  the  miraculous, 
which  is  so  manifest  a  fruit  of  civilisation.  But  it  soon 
becomes  evident  that  this  movement  cannot  be  considered 
by  itself;  for  the  predisposition  in  favour  of  miracles  grows 
out  of,  and  can  only  be  adequately  explained  by,  certain 
conceptions  of  the  nature  of  the  Supreme  Being,  and  of  the 
habitual  government  of  the  universe,  which  invariably  ac- 
company the  earlier,  or,  as  it  may  be  termed,  the  anthro- 
pomorphic stage  of  intellectual  development.  Of  the  na- 
ture of  this  stage  we  have  some  important  evidence  in  the 
history  of  art,  which  is  then  probably  the  most  accurate 
expression  of  the  religious  realisations  ;  while  the  history  of 
the  encroachments  of  physical  science  upon  our  first  notions 
of  the  system  of  tlie  world,  goes  far  to  explain  its  decay. 


20  INTRODUCTION. 

Together  with  the  intellectual  moYement,  we  have  to  con- 
sider a  moral  movement  that  has  accompanied  it,  which 
has  had  the  effect  of  diminishing  the  influence  of  fear  as 
tlie  motive  of  dutj,  of  destroying  the  overwhelming  im- 
portance of  dogmatic  teaching,  and  of  establishing  the  su- 
premacy of  conscience.  This  progress  involves  many  im- 
portant consequences;  hut  the  most  remarkable  of  all  is  the 
decay  of  persecution,  which,  I  have  endeavoured  to  show, 
is  indissolubly  connected  with  a  profound  change  in  the- 
ological realisations.  I  have,  in  the  last  place,  sought  to 
gather  fresh  evidence  of  the  operations  of  the  rationalistic 
spirit  in  the  great  fields  of  politics  and  of  industry.  In  the 
first,  I  have  shown  how  the  movement  of  secularisation  has 
passed  through  every  department  of  political  life,  how  the 
progress  of  democracy  has  influenced  and  been  influenced 
by  tlieological  tendencies,  and  how  political  pursuits  con- 
tribute to  the  formation  of  habits  of  thought,  which  affect 
the  whole  circle  of  our  judgments.  In  the  second,  I  have 
traced  the  rise  of  the  industrial  spirit  in  Europe ;  its  colli- 
sions mth  the  Cliurch ;  the  profound  moral  and  intellec- 
tual changes  it  effected ;  and  the  tendency  of  the  great 
science  of  political  economy,  which  is  its  expression. 

I  am  deeply  conscious  that  the  present  work  can  fur- 
nish at  best  but  a  meagre  sketch  of  these  subjects,  and  that 
to  treat  them  as  they  deseiwe  would  rcquire  an  amount 
both  of  learning  and  of  ability  to  which  I  can  make  no  pre- 
tension. I  shall  be  content  if  I  have  succeeded  in  detect- 
ing some  forgotten  link  in  the  great  chain  of  causes,  or  in 
casting  a  ray  of  light  on  some  of  the  obscurer  pages  of  the 
history  of  opinions. 


OOE'TEE'TS 


OP 


THE     FIRST     VOLUME 


Inteoduction  .........  Page  6 

CHAPTER    I. 

THE  DECLINING  SENSE   OF  THE  MIEACULOUS. 

OX  MAGIC  AND  WITCIICEAFT. 

The  Belief  in  Satanic  Miracles,  having  been  universal  among  Protestants  and  Eoman 
Catholics,  passed  away  by  a  silent  and  unreasoning  process  under  the  influence  of 
Civilisation — Witchcraft  arose  from  a  vivid  Eealisation  of  Satanic  Presence  acting 
on  the  Imagination — and  afterwai-ds  on  the  Eeason — Its  Existence  and  Importance 
among  Savages— The  Christians  attributed  to  Magic  the  Pagan  Miracles— Constantino 
and  Constantius  attempted  to  subvert  Paganism  by  persecuting  Magic— Magical 
Character  soon  attributed  to  Christian  Kites — Miracle  of  St.  Hilarion — Persecution 
suspended  under  Julian  and  Jovian,  but  afterwards  renewed— Not  entirely  due  to 
Ecclesiastical  Influence — Compromise  between  Christianity  and  Paganism — Prohib- 
ited Pagan  Eites  continue  to  be  practised  as  ]Magic— From  the  Sixth  to  the  Twelfth 
Century,  extreme  Superstition  with  little  Terrorism,  and,  consequently,  little  Sorcery 
•— Efl"ects  of  Eclipses,  Comets,  and  Pestilence  on  the  Superstition— The  Cabalists — 
Psellus— The  Eevival  of  Literature  in  the  Twelfth  Century  produced  a  Spirit  of  Ee- 
bellion  which  was  encountered  by  Terrorism— which,  acting  on  the  Popular  Creed, 
produced  a  bias  towards  Witchcraft— The  Black  Death— Influence  of  the  Eeforma- 
tion  in  stimulating  Witchcraft— Luther— The  Inquisitors— The  Theology  of  Witch- 
craft— First    Evidence  of  a    Eationalistic  Spirit    in  Europe — Wicr — answered   bv 


22  CONTEXTS    OF 

Bodin— Eationalistic  Spirit  fully  manifested  iu  Montaigne— Charron—Eaiiid  and 
silent  Decadence  of  the  Belief  in  "Witclics— Opinions  and  Influence  of  La  Bruycre, 
Bayle,  Descartes,  Malebrancbe,  and  Yoltaire— Gradual  Cessation  of  the  Persecution 
in  France — In  England,  the  First  Law  against  Witchcraft  was  made  under  Henry 
YIIL— Eepcaled  in  the  following  Eeign,  but  renewed  under  Elizabeth— Cranmer  and 
Jewel— Eeginald  Scott  pronounced  Witchcraft  a  delusion— The  Law  of  James  I. — 
Opinions  of  Coke,  Bacon,  Shakespeare,  Browne,  and  Selden— English  "Witchcraft 
reached  its  climax  in  the  Commonwealth— Declined  immediately  after  the  Eestora- 
tion— The  Three  Causes  were,  the  Eeaction.  against  Puritanism,  the  Influence  of 
Ilobbes,  and  the  Baconian  Philosophy  as  represented  by  the  Eoyal  Society — Charge 
of  Sir  Matthew  Hale— Glanvil  undertakes  the  Defence  of  the  Belief— Supported  by 
Henry  More,  Cudworth,  Casaubon,  &c. — Opposed  by  Webster  and  Wagstaafe — Baxter 
vainly  tries  to  revive  the  Belief  by  Accounts  of  Witch  Trials  in  America— Eapid 
Progress  of  the  Scepticism— Trial  of  Jane  Wenham— Eepeal  of  the  Laws  against 
Witchcraft — Wesley's  Summary  of  the  History  of  the  Movement— Great  Moderation 
of  the  English  Church  as  compared  with  Puritanism— Extreme  Atrocity  of  the 
Witch  Persecution  in  Scotland,  and  its  Causes — Slow  Decline  of  the  Belief  in  Scot- 
land—Conclusion ........  Page  27 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE  DECLINING  SENSE  OF  THE  MIRACULOUS. 

THE  MIEACLES   OF  THE  CHUECH. 

Miracles  related  by  the  Fathers  and  Mediaeval  Writers  as  ordinary  and  undoubted  Occur- 
rences—Eapid  Growth  of  Scepticism  on  the  Subject  since  the  Eeformation — The 
Sceptical  Habit  of  Mind  acts  more  powerfully  on  Contemporary  than  on  Historical 
Narrations— Among  the  early  Protestants,  the  Cessation  of  Miracles  supposed  to 
have  taken  place  when  the  Fathers  passed  away — ^Persecution  regarded  by  some  Eng- 
lish Divines  as  a  Substitute  for  Miracles— Opinions  of  Locke  and  Newton  on  the 
Subject — Tendencies  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  adverse  to  the  Miraculous— Middle- 
lon- Discussion  of  his  Principles  by  Church,  Dodwell,  Gibbon,  Hume,  Farmer,  War- 
burton,  and  Douglas — General  Abandonment  of  the  Patristic  Miracles — Else  of 
Tractarianism— Small  Place  Catholic  Miracles  occupied  in  the  Discussion  it  evoked— 
Weakness  of  the  common  Arguments  against  the  continuance  of  Miracles — Devi^lon- 
mcnt  of  Continental  Protestantism  into  Eationalism— Eationalistic  Tendencies  in 
Eoman  Catholic  Countries— Origin  and  Decline  of  the  Evidential  School  in  England 
—Modification  of  the  Conception  of  Miracles— Eeasonableness  of  the  Doctrine  of 
Interference — Summary  of  the  Stages  of  Eationalism  in  its  relation  to  the  Miracu- 
lous— Its  Causes— Its  Influence  on  Christianity  ....  155 


THE   FIRST    YOLrME.'  23 

CHAPTER  III. 

ESTHETIC,  SCIENTIFIC,  AND  MORAL  DEVELOPMENTS  OF  RATIONALISM. 

The  Expectation  of  Miracles  grows  out  of  the  Eeligious  Conceptions  of  an  early  Stage  of 
Civilisation,  and  its  Decline  implies  a  general  Modification  of  Religions  Opinions — 
Fetishism  probably  the  First  Stage  of  Eeligious  Belief— Examples  of  Fetish  Notions 
in  the  Early  Church— Patristic  Opinions  concerning  the  Cross  and  the  "Water  of  Bap- 
tism—Anthropomorphism the  next  Stage— Men  then  ascribe  the  Government  of  the 
Universe  to  Beings  like  themselves ;  but,  being  unable  to  concentrate  their  Attention 
on  the  Invisible,  they  fall  into  Idolatry— Idolatry  a  Sign  sometimes  of  Progress,  and 
sometimes  of  Retrogression— During  its  continuance.  Art  is  the  most  faithful  Expres- 
sion of  Religious  Realisation — Influence  of  the  National  Religions  on  the  Art  of  Per- 
sia, Egypt,  India,  and  Greece — The  Art  of  the  Catacombs  altogether  removed  from 
Idolatry — Its  Freedom  from  Terrorism— Its  Symbolism— Progress  of  Anthropomor- 
phism— Position  of  the  First  Person  of  the.  Trinity  in  Art— Growing  "Worship  of  the 
Virgin — Strengthened  by  Gnosticism— by  Dogmatic  Definitions— by  Painting,  Celi- 
bacy, and  the  Crusades— Its  Moral  Consequences — Growth  of  Idolatrous  Conceptions 
—Stages  of  the  Veneration  of  Relics- Tendency  towards  the  Miraculous  invests 
Images  with  peculiar  Sanctity— The  Portrait  of  Edessa— The  Image  at  Paneas— Con- 
version of  the  Barbarians  makes  Idolatry  general — Decree  of  Illiberis — The  Icono- 
clasts— The  Second  Council  of  Nice — St.  Agobard — Mahometanism  the  sole  Example 
of  a  great  Religion  restraining  Semi-barbarians  from  Idolatry— Three  Causes  of  its 
Success — Low  Condition  of  Art  during  the  Period  of  Medi;Eval  Idolatry— Difference 
between  the  Religious  and  Esthetic  Sentiment — Aversion  to  Innovation — Contrast 
between  the  Pagan  and  Christian  Estimate  of  the  Body — Greek  Idolatry  faded  into 
Art — Its  Four  Stages — A  corresponding  Transition  takes  place  in  Christendom — Greek 
Influence  on  Art— Iconoclasm— Tradition  of  the  Deformity  of  Christ— The  Byzantine 
Style — Broken  by  a  Study  of  Ancient  Sculpture  renewed  by  Nicolas  of  Pisa— Chris- 
tian School  of  Giotto  and  Fra  Angelico — Corresponded  with  the  Intellectual  Charac- 
ter of  the  Time— Influence  of  Dante— Apocalyptic  Subjects— Progress  of  Terrorism 
in  Art — Increase  of  Scepticism — Religious  Paintings  regarded  simply  as  Studies  of  the 
Beautiful— Influence  of  Venetian  Sensuality— Sensuality  favourable  to  Art— Parallel 
of  Titian  and.  Praxiteles — Influence  of  the  Pagan  Sculpture— History  of  Greek 
Statues  after  the  rise  of  Christianity — Reaction  in  fovoiu-  of  Spiritualism  led  by  Savo- 
narola— Complete  Secularisation  of  Art  by  Michael  Angelo — Cycle  of  Painting  com- 
pleted—A corresponding  Transition  took  place  in  Architecture— Fluctuations  in  the 
Estimate  in  wbicb  it  has  been  held  represent  Fluctuations  of  Eeligious  Sentiments- 
Decline  of  Gothic  Architecture — Brunelleschi — St.  Peter's— Intellectual  Importance 
of  the  History  of  Art— The  Euthanasia  of  Opinions— Continued  Revolt  against  An- 
thropomorphism— Results  from  the  Totality  of  the  Influences  of  Civilisation,  but  es- 
pecially from  the  Encrcachments  of  Physical  Science  on  the  old  Conceptions  of  the 
Government  of  the  Universe- In  the  Early  Church,  Science  was  subordinated  to 


24  *        CONTEXTS    OF 

Systems  of  Scriptural  Interpretation— Allegorical  School  of  Orio'en— St.  Augustine  Be 
(?e«m— Literal  School— Controversy  about  the  Antipodes— Cosmas — Ylrgilius — Eise 
of  the  Copernican  System— Condemnation  of  Foscarini  and  of  Galileo— Influence  of 
Theology  on  the  Progress  of  Science — Opinion  of  Bacon— Astronomy  displaces  the 
Ancient  Notion  of  Man's  Position  in  the  Universe — Philosophical  Importance  of  As- 
trology—Ecfutation  by  Geology  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Penal  Nature  of  Death — In- 
creasing Sense  of  Law — Eeasons  "why  apparently  Capricious  Phenomena  were  es- 
pecially associated  with  Eeligious  Ideas— On  Lots — IiTeligious  Character  attributed 
to  Scientific  Explanations— Difference  between  the  Conception  of  the  Divinity  in  a 
Scientific  and  Unscientific  Age— Growth  of  Astronomy — Comets — Influence  of  Para- 
celsus, Bayle,  and  Ilalley— Rise  of  Scientific  Academies — Ascendency  of  the  Belief  in 
Law— Harsher  Features  of  Theology  thereby  corrected — The  Morphological  Theory 
of  the  Universe — Its  Influence  on  History — Illegitimate  Effects  of  Science — Influence 
on  Biblical  Interpretation — La  Peyrere — Spinoza — Kant — Lessing — Moral  Develop- 
ment accompanies  the  Intellectual  Movement — Illustrations  of  its  Nature — Moral 
Genius — Eelations  of  Theology  to  Morals — Complete  Separation  in  Antiquity — Origi- 
nality of  the  Moral  Type  of  Christianitj^ — Conceptions  of  the  Divinity — Evanescence 
of  Duties  unconnected  with  our  Moral  Nature — History  of  Eeligious  Terrorism — 
Patristic  Conception  of  Hell — Origen  and  Gregory  of  Nyssa — Faint  Notions  of  the 
Jews  and  Heathens  on  th^  Subject — ^Doctrine  of  Purgatory — Scotus  Erigena — Ex- 
treme Terrorism  of  the  Fourteenth  Century — Destruction  of  Natural  Eeligion  by  the 
Conception  of  Hell — Its  Effect  in  habituating  Men  to  contemplate  the  Sufferings  of 
others  with  complacency — Illustration  of  this  fi-om  Tertullian— and  from  the  History 
of  Persecution— and  from  that  of  Torture— Abolition  of  Torture  in  France,  Spain, 
Prussia,  Italy,  and  Eussia — Eelations  between  the  prevailing  Sense  of  the  Enormity 
of  Sin  and  the  Severity  of  the  Penal  Code— Decline  of  the  Mediaeval  Notions  of  Hell 
due  partly  to  the  Progress  of  Moral  Philosophy,  and  partly  to  that  of  Psychology — 
Apparitions  and  the  Belief  in  Hell  the  Corner-stones  of  the  Psychology  of  the  Fathers 
— Eepudiation  of  Platonism — Two  Schools  of  Materialism — ^Materialism  of  the  Middle 
Ages— Impulse  given  to  Psychology  by  Averroes — and  by  the  Mystics  of  the  Four- 
teenth Century— Descartes — Swinden,  Whiston,  Horbery — Change  in  the  Ecclesiasti- 
cal Typo  of  Character— Part  taken  by  Theologians  in  ameliorating  the  English  Penal 
Code — First  Impulse  due  to  Voltaire  and  Beccaria — Bentham — Elimination  of  the 
Doctrine  of  Future  Torture  from  Eeligious  Ecalisations  .  Page  202 

CHAPTER  IV. 

ON    PERSECUTION. 

PAET  I. 

THE     ANTECEDENTS     OF    rEr.SECUTION. 
rcrseculion  is  the  result,  not  of  the  personal  Character  of  the  Persecutors,  but  of  the 
Principles  they  profess— Foundations  of  all  Eeligious  Systems  are  the  Sense  of  Virtue 
and  the  Sense  of  Sin — Political  and  Intellectual  Circumstances  determine  in  each 


THE    FIKST   VOLUME.  25 

System  their  relative  Importance — These  Sentiments  gradually  converted  into  Dog- 
mas,  under  the  Names  of  Justification  by  "Works  and  Justification  by  Faith — Dog 
mas  unfaithful  Expressions  of  Moral  Sentiments — The  Conception  of  Hereditary 
Guilt — Theories  to  account  for  it — The  Progress  of  Democratic  Habits  destroys  it — 
Its  dogmatic  Expression  the  Doctrine  that  all  Men  are  by  Nature  doomed  to  Damna- 
tion— Unanimity  of  the  Fathers  concerning  the  Non-salvability  of  unbaptised  In- 
fants— Divergence  concerning  their  Fate— The  Greek  Fathers  believed  in  a  Limbo — 
The  Latin  Fathers  denied  this — Augustine,  Fulgentius— Origen  associates  the  Doc- 
trine with  that  of  Pre-existence— Pseudo-baptisms  of  the  Middle  Ages — The  Eefor- 
mation  produced  conflicting  Tendencies  on  the  subject,  diminishing  the  Sense  of  tho 
EtBcacy  of  Ceremonies,  increasing  that  of  imputed  Guilt — ^I'he  Lutherans  and  Cal 
vinists  held  a  Doctrine  that  was  less  superstitious  but  more  revolting  than  that  of  Ca- 
tholicism— Jonathan  Edwards — Dogmatic  Character  of  early  Protestantism — Eation- 
alism  appeared  with  Socinus — Antecedents  of  Italian  Eationalism — Socinus  rejects 
Original  Sin— as  also  does  Zuinglius— Eationalistic  Tendencies  of  this  Eeformer — 
Eapid  Progress  of  his  Yiew  of  Baptism— The  Scope  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Condem- 
nation of  all  Men  extends  to  Adults— Sentiments  of  the  Fathers  on  the  Damnation 
of  the  Heathen — Great  Use  of  this  Doctrine  of  Exclusive  Salvation  in  consolidating 
the  Power  of  the  Church — and  in  abbreviating  the  Paroxysms  of  the  Eeformation — 
The  Protestants  almost  all  accepted  it— Protest  of  Zuinglius — Opposition  between 
Dogmatic  and  Natural  Eeligion  resulting  from  the  Doctrine — Influence  on  Predesti- 
narianism — Augustine — Luther  De  Servo  Arbitrio — Calvin  and  Beza — Injurious  In- 
fluence of  the  Doctrine  of  Exclusive  Salvation  on  Morals— and  on  the  Sense  of  Truth 
— Pious  Frauds— Total  Destruction  in  the  Middle  Ages  of  the  Sense  of  Truth  result- 
ing from  the  Influence  of  Theology — The  Classes  who  were  most  addicted  to  False- 
hood proclaimed  Credulity  a  Virtue- Doctrine  of  Probabilities  of  Pascal  and  Craig — 
Eevival  of  the  Sense  of  Truth  due  to  Secular  Philosophers  of  the  Seventeenth  Cen- 
tury— Causes  of  the  Influence  of  Bacon,  Descartes,  and  Locke— The  Decline  of  Theo- 
logical Belief  a  necessary  Antecedent  of  their  Success       .  .  .        Page  853 


ja-  «TV  OF 


\ths 


0L06IC:S:L/ 


RATIONALISM    IN    EUROPE, 


CHAPTEE  I. 

OX  THE  DECLIOTNG  SENSE  OF  THE  MIRACULOUS. 


MAGIC  AND  WITCHCRAIT. 

Theee  is  certainly  no  change  in  the  history  of  the  last 
300  years  more  striking,  or  suggestive  of  more  curious 
enquiries,  than  that  which  has  taken  place  in  the  estimate  of 
the  miraculous.  At  present,  nearly  all  educated  men  receive 
an  account  of  a  miracle  taking  place  in  their  own  day,  with 
an  absolute  and  even  derisive  incredulity  which  disj^enses 
with  all  examination  of  the  evidence.  Although  they  may 
be  entirely  unable  to  give  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  some 
phenomena  that  have  taken  place,  they  ncA'er  on  that  account 
dream  of  ascribing  them  to  supernatural  agency,  such  an 
hypothesis  being,  as  they  believe,  altogether  beyond  the 
range  of  reasonable  discussion.  Yet,  a  few  centuries  ago, 
there  was  no  solution  to  which  the  mind  of  man  turned  more 
readily  in  every  perplexity.  A  miraculous  account  was  then 
universally  accepted  as  perfectly  credible,  probable,  and 
ordinary.  There  was  scarcely  a  village  or  a  church  that  had 
not,  at  some  time,  been  the  scene  of  supernatural  interposi- 


28  EATIOXALISM    IX    EUKOPE. 

tion.  The  powers  of  light  and  the  powers  of  darkness  were 
regarded  as  visibly  struggling  for  the  mastery.  Saintly 
miracles,  supernatural  cures,  startling  judgments,  visions, 
pro2:)hecies,  and  j:rodigies  of  every  order,  attested  the  activ- 
ity of  the  one,  while  witchcraft  and  magic,  with  all  their 
attendant  horrors,  were  the  visible  manifestations  of  the 
other. 

I  propose  in  the  present  chapter  to  examine  that  vast 
department  of  miracles,  which  is  comprised  under  th6  several 
names  of  witchcraft,  magic,  and  sorcery.  It  is  a  subject 
which  has,  I  think,  scarcely  obtained  the  position  it  deserves 
in  the  history  of  opinions,  having  been  too  generally  treated 
in  the  sj^irit  of  the  antiquarian,  as  if  it  belonged  entirely  to 
the  past,  and  could  have  no  voice  or  bearing  upon  the  con- 
troversies of  the  present.  Yet,  for  more  than  fifteen  hundred 
years,  it  was  universally  believed  that  the  Bible  established, 
in  the  clearest  manner,  the  reality  of  the  crime,  and  that  an 
amount  of  evidence,  so  varied  and  so  ample  as  to  preclude 
the  very  possibility  of  doubt,  attested  its  continuance  and  its 
prevalence.  The  clergy  denounced  it  with  all  the  emphasis 
of  authority.  The  legislators  of  almost  every  land  enacted 
laws  for  its  jDunishment.  Acute  judges,  whose  lives  were 
spent  in  sifting  evidence,  investigated  the  question  on  count- 
less occasions,  and  condemned  the  accused.  /  Tens  of  thou- 
sands of  victims  perished  by  the  most  agonising  and  j^ro- 
tracted  torments,  without  exciting  the  faintest  compassion  ; 
aiicl,  as  they  were  for  the  most  part  extremely  ignorant  and 
extremely  poor,  sectarianism  and  avarice  had  but  little 
influence   on  the   subject.^     Nations   that  were   completely 

^  The  general  truth  of  this  statement  can  scarcely,  I  think,  be  questioned, 
though  there  are,  undoubtedly,  a  low  remarkable  exceptions.  Thus  the 
Templars  were  accused  of  sorcery,  when  Philip  the  Beautiful  wished  to  con- 


MAGIC   AND   WITCnCEAFT.  29 

separated  by  position,  by  interests,  and  by  character,  on  this 
one  question  were  united.  In  ahiiost  every  province  of 
Germany,  but  especially  in  those  where  clerical  influence 
predominated,  the  persecution  raged  with  a  fearful  intensity. 
Seven  thousand  victims  are  said  to  have  been  burned  at 
Troves,  six  hundred  by  a  single  bishop  of  Bamberg,  and 
eight  hundred  in  a  single  year  in  the  bishopric  of  "Wtirtz- 
burg/  In  France,  decrees  were  passed  on  the  subject  by  the 
Parliaments  of  Paris,  Toulouse,  Bordeaux,  Plieims,  Rouen, 
Dijon,  and  Rennes,  and  they  Avere  all  followed  by  a  harvest 
of  blood.  At  Toulouse,  the  seat  of  the  Inquisition,  four 
hundred  j)ersons  perished  for  sorcery  at  a  single  execution, 
and  fifty  at  Douay  in  a  single  year.  Remy,  a  judge  of 
Kancy,  boasted  that  he  liad  put  to  death  eight  hundred 
witches  in  sixteen  years.     The  executions  that  took  place  at 

fiscate  their  property ;  and  the  heretical  opinions  of  the  Yaudois  may  possibly 
have  had  something  to  say  to  the  trials  at  Arras,  in  1459  ;  and,  indeed,  the 
name  Vauderie  was  at  one  time  given  to  sorcery.  There  were,  moreover,  a  few 
cases  of  obnoxious  politicians  and  noblemen  being  destroyed  on  the  accusation ; 
and  during  the  Commonwealth  there  were  one  or  two  professional  witch-finders 
in  England.  We  have  also  to  take  into  account  some  cases  of  convent  scandals, 
such  as  those  of  GaufFridi,  Grandier,  and  La  Cadiere;  but,  when  all  these 
deductions  have  been  made,  the  prosecutions  for  witchcraft  will  represent  the 
action  of  undiluted  superstition  more  faithfully  than  probably  any  others  that 
could  be  named.  The  overwhelming  majority  of  witches  were  extremely  poor ; 
they  were  condemned  by  the  highest  and  purest  tribunals  (ecclesiastical  and 
lay)  of  the  time ;  and  as  heretics  were  then  burnt  without  difficulty  for  their 
opinions,  there  was  little  temptation  to  accuse  them  of  witchcraft,  and  besides 
all  parties  joined  cordially  in  the  persecution.  Grillandus,  an  Italian  inquisitor 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  says — 'Isti  sortilegi,  magici,  necromantici,  et  similes 
sunt  caiteris  Christ!  fidehbus  pauperiores,  sordidiores,  viliorcs,  et  contemptibi- 
liores,  in  hoc  mundo  Deo  permittcnte  calamitosam  vitam  comrauniter  peragunt, 
Dcum  verum  infelici  morte  perdunt  et  eeterni  ignis  incendio  cruciantur.'  {De 
Sortilcgns^  cap,  iii.)  We  shall  see  hereafter  that  witchcraft  and  heresy  repre- 
sent the  working  of  the  same  spirit  on  different  classes,  and,  therefore,  usually 
accompanied  each  other. 

^  Wright's  Sorcery,  vol.  i.  p.  186 ;  Mlchelet,  La  Sorciere,  p.  10. 


30  KATIOXALISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

Paris  in  a  few  months  were,  in  the  emphatic  words  of  an 
old  writer,  *  ahnost  infinite.' '  The  fngitives  who  escaj^ed  to 
Sj^ain  were  there  seized  and  burned  by  the  Inquisition.  In 
that  country  the  persecution  spread  to  tlie  smallest  towns, 
and  the  belief  was  so  deeply  rooted  in  the  popular  mind,  that 
a  sorcerer  was  burnt  as  late  as  1780.  Torquemada  devoted 
himself  to  the  extirpation  of  witchcraft  as  zealously  as  to  the 
extirpation  of  heresy,  and  he  wrote  a  book  upon  the  enormity 
of  the  crime.^     In  Italy,  a  thousand  persons  were  executed  in 

^  On  French  witchcraft,  see  Thiers'  Traite  des  Superstitions^  torn,  i.  pp. 
134-136;  Madden's  History  of  Fhanfasmata,  vol.  i.  pp.  306-310;  Garinet, 
Histoire  de  la  Magie  en  France^  passim,  but  especially  the  Remonstrance  of 
the  Parliament  of  Rouen,  in  1670,  against  the  pardon  of  witches,  p.  337 ; 
Bodin's  Demonomanie  des  Sorciers.  The  persecution  raged  with  extreme 
violence  all  through  the  south  of  France.  It  was  a  brilUant  suggestion  of  De 
Lancre,  that  the  witchcraft  about  Bordeaux  might  be  connected  with  the 
number  of  orchards — the  Devil  being  well  known  to  have  an  especial  power 
over  apples.  (See  the  passage  quoted  in  Garinet,  p.  176.)  We  have  a  fearful 
illustration  of  the  tenacity  of  the  belief  in  the  fact  that  the  superstition  still 
continues,  and  that  blood  has  in  consequence  been  shed  during  the  present 
century  in  the  provinces  that  border  on  the  Pyrenees.  In  1807,  a  beggar  was 
seized,  tortured,  and  burned  alive  for  sorcery  by  the  inhabitants  of  Mayenne. 
In  1850,  the  Civil  Tribunal  of  Tarbes  tried  a  man  and  woman  named  Soubcrvie, 
for  having  caused  the  death  of  a  woman  named  Bedouret.  They  believed  that 
she  was  a  witch,  and  declared  that  the  priest  had  told  them  that  she  was  the 
cause  of  an  illness  under  which  the  woman  Soubervie  was  suffering.  They 
accordingly  drew  Bedouret  into  a  private  room,  held  her  down  upon  some 
burning  straw,  and  placed  a  red-hot  iron  across  her  mouth.  The  unhappy 
woman  soon  died  in  extreme  agony.  The  Soubervics  confessed,  and  indeed 
exulted  in  their  act.  At  their  trials  they  obtained  the  highest  possible  charac- 
ters. It  was  shown  that  they  had  been  actuated  solely  by  superstition,  and  it 
was  urged  that  they  only  followed  the  highest  ecclesiastical  precedents.  The 
jury  recommended  them  to  mercy ;  and  they  were  only  sentenced  to  pay  twenty- 
five  francs  a  year  to  the  husband  of  the  victim,  and  to  be  imprisoned  for  four 
months.  (Cordier,  Llgendcs  des  Hautes-Pyrenecs.  Lourdes,  1855,  pp.  79-88  ) 
lu  the  Rituel  Ausciiain,  now  used  in  the  diocese  of  Tarbes,  it  is  said — '  On  doit 
reconnaitre  que  non  seulemcnt  il  pent  y  avoir,  mais  qu'il  y  a  meme  quelqucfois 
des  i)crsonne3  qui  sont  v6ritablement  possedees  des  esprits  malins.'  (Ibid, 
p.  90.) 

"Llorente,  History  o/  the  Imjuisition  (English  Translation),  pjx  129-142. 


MAGIC   AND   WITCHCEAFT.  31 

a  single  year  in  the  province  of  Como ;  and  in  other  parts  of 
the  country,  the  severity  of  the  inquisitors  at  last  created  an 
absolute  rebellion.^  The  same  scenes  were  enacted  in  the 
wild  valleys  of  Switzerland  and  of  Savoy.  In  Geneva,  whicli 
was  then  ruled  by  a  bishop,  five  hundred  alleged  witches 
were  executed  in  three  months;  forty-eight  were  burnt  at 
Constance  or  Ravensburg,  and  eighty  in  the  little  town  of 
Yalcry,  in  Savoy.'  In  1670,  seventy  persons  were  condemn- 
ed in  Sweden,^  and  a  large  proportion  of  them  were  burnt. 
And  these  are  only  a  few  of  the  more  salient  events  in  that 
long  series  of  persecutions  which  extended  over  almost  every 
country,  and  continued  for  centuries  with  unabated  fury.  The 
Church  of  Rome  proclaimed  in  every  way  that  was  in  her 
power  the  reality  and  the  continued  existence  of  the  crime. 

Amongst  other  cases,  more  than  thirty  women  were  burnt  at  Calahorra,  in 
1507.  A  Spanish  monk,  named  Castanaga,  seems  to  have  ventured  to  question 
the  justice  of  the  executions  as  early  as  1529  (p.  131).  See  also  Garinet,  p. 
176  ;  Madden,  vol.  i.  pp.  311-315.  Toledo  was  supposed  to  be  the  head- 
quarters of  the  magicians,  probably  because,  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries,  mathematics,  which  were  constantly  confounded  with  magic,  flourish- 
ed there  more  than  in  any  other  part  of  Europe.  Naude,  Apologie  pour  les 
Grands  Hommes  mnpQonnez  de  3Iagie  (Paris,  1625),  pp.  81,  82.  See  also 
Buckle's  History  of  CiviUsatlon,  vol.  i.  p.  334,  note,  and  Simancas,  De  Catlio- 
licis  Institidionibus,  pp.  463-468. 

^  Spina,  Dc  Strigihus  (1522),  cap.  xii. ;  Thiers,  vol.  i.  p.  138;  Madden,  vol. 
i.  p.  305.  Peter  "the  Martyr,  whom  Titian  has  immortahsed,  seems  to  have 
been  one  of  the  most  strenuous  of  the  persecutors.     Spina,  ApoL,  c.  ix. 

"  Madden,  vol.  i.  pp.  303,  304.  Michelet,  Za  Sorciere,  p.  206.  Sprenger 
ascribes  Toll's  shot  to  the  assistance  of  the  devil.  3fall.  Mai,  pars  ii.  c.  xvi. 
Savoy  has  always  been  especially  subject  to  those  epidemics  of  madness  which 
were  once  ascribed  to  witches,  and  Boguet  noticed  that  the  principal  wizards 
he  had  burnt  were  from  that  country.  An  extremely  curious  account  of  a 
recent  epidemic  of  this  kind  in  a  httlc  village  called  Morzines  will  be  found  in 
Une  Relation  sur  une  Epidhnie  d^ Hystero-Demonopathie  en  1861,  par  le  Docteur 
A.  Constans  (Paris,  1863).  Two  French  writers,  Alain  Kardec  and  Mirville, 
have  maintained  this  epidemic  to  be  supernatural. 

'  Compare  Plancey,  Bid.  Infernale,  art.  JBlohida  ;  Hutchinson  on  WitcJir 
craft,  p.  55 ;  Madden,  vol.  i.  p.  354. 


32  EATIOXALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

She  strained  every  nerve  to  stimulate  the  persecution.  She 
taught  by  all  her  organs  that  to  spare  a  witch  was  a  direct 
insult  to  the  Almighty,  and  to  her  ceaseless  exertions  is  to  be 
attributed  by  far  the  greater  proportion  of  the  blood  that 
was  shed.  In  1484,  Pope  Innocent  VIII.  issued  a  bull  which 
gave  a  fearful  impetus  to  the  persecution,  and  he  it  was  who 
commissioned  the  Inquisitor  Sprenger,  whose  book  was  long 
the  recognised  manual  on  the  subject,  and  who  is  said  to 
have  condemned  hundreds  to  death  every  year.  Similar 
bulls  were  issued  by  Julius  II.  in  1504,  and  by  Adrian  VI.  in 
1523.  A  long  series  of  Provincial  Councils  asserted  the 
existence  of  sorcery,  and  anathematised  those  who  resorted 
to  it.  '  The  universal  practice  of  the  Church  was  to  place 
magic  and  sorcery  among  the  reserved  cases,  and  at  prones 
to  declare  magicians  and  sorcerers  excommunicated  ;'  ^  and  a 
form  of  exorcism  was  solemnly  inserted  in  the  ritual.  Almost 
all  the  great  works  that  were  written  in  favour  of  the  execu- 
tions were  written  by  ecclesiastics.  Almost  all  the  lay  works 
on  the  same  side  were  dedicated  to  and  sanctioned  by  eccle- 
siastical dignitaries.  Ecclesiastical  tribunals  condemned 
thousands  to  death,  and  countless  bishops  exerted  all  their 
influence  to  multiply  the  victims.  In  a  word,  for  many 
centuries  it  was  universally  believed,  that  the  continued 
existence  of  witchcraft  formed  an  integral  part  of  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Church,  and  that  the  persecution  that  raged 
through  Europe  was  supported  by  the  whole  stress  of  her 
infallibility.^' 

*  Thiers,  Supcrst,  vol.  i.  p.  142. 

^  For  ample  evidence  of  the  teaching  of  Catholicism  on  the  subject,  see 
Madden's  History  of  Phant.^  vol.  i.  pp.  234-248 ;  Des  Mousseaux,  Pratiques 
des  Demons  (Paris,  1854),  pp.  1'74-1'77;  Thiers'  Supcrst.,  torn.  i.  pp.  138-163. 
The  two  last-mentioned  writers  were  ardent  Catholics.  Tliiers,  who  wrote  in 
16*78  (I  have  used  the  Paris  edition  of  l'i'41),  was  a  very  learned  and  moderate 


MAGIC   AND    "WITCUCKAFT.  83 

Siich  was  the  attitude  of  the  Charcli  of  Ilome  with  ref- 
erence to  this  subject,  but  on  this  ground  the  Iweforniers  had 
no  conflict  with  their  opponents.  Tlie  credulity  which  Lu- 
ther manifested  on  all  matters  connected  with  diabolical  in- 
tervention, was  amazing,  even  for  his  age  ;  and,  Avhen  speak- 
ing of  witchcraft,  his  language  was  emphatic  and  unhesi- 
tating. 'I  would  have  no  compassion  on  these  witches,'  lie 
exclaimed,  '  I  would  burn  them  all ! '  ^  In  England  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  Reformation  was  the  signal  for  an  imme- 
diate outburst  of  the  superstition ;  and  there,  as  elsewhere, 
its  decline  was  reiDresented  by  the  clergy  as  the  direct  con- 
sequence and  the  exact  measure  of  the  progress  of  religious 
scepticism.  In  Scotland,  where  the  Reformed  ministers  ex- 
ercised greater  influence  than  in  any  other  country,  and 
where  the  witch  trials  fell  almost  entirely  into  their  hands, 
the  persecution  was  proportionately  atrocious.  Probably 
the  ablest  defender  of  the  belief  was  Glanvil,  a  clergyman 
of  the  English  Establishment ;  and  one  of  the  most  influen- 
tial was  Baxter,  the  greatest  of  the  Puritans.  It  spread, 
with  Puritanism,  into  the  l!^ew  World ;  and  the  executions 
in  Massachusetts  form  one  of  the  darkest  pages  in  the  his- 

tlieologian,  and  wrote  under  the  approbation  of  '  the  doctors  in  the  faculty  of 
Paris : '  he  says — *  On  ne  s9auroit  nier  qu'il  y  ait  des  magiciens  ou  des  sorciers 
(car  ces  deux  mots  se  prennent  ordinairement  dans  la  meme  signification)  sans 
contrcdire  visiblement  les  saintes  lettres,  la  tradition  sacrce  et  profane,  Ics  lois 
canoniques  et  civiles  ct  rexperience  de  tons  Ics  siecles,  et  sans  rejetcr  avee 
impudence  I'autorite  irrefragable  et  infoilliblc  de  I'Eglise  qui  lance  si  souvent 
les  foudres  de  I'excommunication  contr'eux  dans  ses  Prunes'  (p.  132).  So  also 
Garinet — '  Tons  les  conciles,  tons  les  synodes,  qui  se  tinrent  dans  Ics  seize 
premiers  siecles  de  I'eglise  s'elevent  contre  les  sorciers ;  tous  les  ecrivains 
ccclesiastiques  les  condamnent  avec  plus  ou  moins  de  severite '  (p.  26).  The 
bull  of  Innocent  VIII.  is  prefixed  to  the  Malleus  Malificarum. 

Colloquia  de  Fascinatioyiihus.  For  the  notions  of  Melanchthou  on  these 
subjects,  see  Baxter's  World  of  Spirits^  pp.  126,  12'7.  Calvin,  also,  when  re- 
modelling the  laws  of  Geneva,  left  those  on  witchcraft  intact. 

VOL.  I. — 3 


34  RATIOXALISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

tory  of  America.  The  greatest  religious  leader  of  the  last 
century  ^  was  among  the  latest  of  its  suj)porters. 

If  we  ask  T\'hy  it  is  that  the  world  has  rejected  what  Avaa 
once  so  universally  and  so  intensely  believed,  why  a  narra- 
tive of  Lui  old  woman  who  had  been  seen  riding  on  a  broom- 
stick, or  who  Avas  proved  to  have  transformed  herself  into  a 
wolf,  and  to  have  devoured  the  flocks  of  her  neighbours,  is 
deemed  so  entirely  incredible,  most  persons  would  probably 
be  unable  to  give  a  very  definite  answer  to  the  question.  It 
is  not  because  we  have  examined  the  evidence  and  found  it 
insuflicient,  for  the  disbelief  always  precedes,  when  it  does 
not  prevent,  examination.  It  is  ratlier  because  the  idea  of 
absurdity  is  so  strongly  attached  to  such  narratives,  that  it 
is  difiicult  even  to  consider  them  wath  gravity.  Yet  at  one 
time  no  such  improbability  was  felt,  and  hundreds  of  per- 
sons have  been  burnt  simply  on  the  two  grounds  I  have 
mentioned. 

When  so  complete  a  change  takes  place  in  public  opinion, 
it  may  be  ascribed  to  one  or  other  of  two  causes.  It  may 
be  the  result  of  a  controversy  which  has  conclusively  settled 
the  question,  establishing  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  parties  a 
clear  preponderance  of  argument  or  fact  in  favour  of  one 
opinion,  and  making  that  opinion  a  truism  which  is  accepted 
by  all  enlightened  men,  even  though  they  have  not  tliem- 
selves  examined  the  evidence  on  which  it  rests.  Thus,  if 
any  one  in  a  company  of  ordinarily  educated  persons  were 
to  denj^  the  motion  of  the  earth,  or  the  circulation  of  the 
blood,  liis  statement  would  be  received  witli  derision,  though 
it  is  probable  that  some  of  his  audience  would  be  unable  to 
demonstrate  the  first  truth,  and  that  very  few  of  them  could 
give  sufticient  reasons  for  the  second.     They  may  not  them- 

'  Wesley 


MAGIC   AND    WITCHCEAFT.  35 

selves  be  able  to  defend  their  position ;  but  they  arc  aware 
that,  at  certain  known  periods  of  history,  controversies  on 
those  subjects  took  place,  and  that  known  Avriters  then 
brought  forward  some  definite  arguments  or  experiments, 
which  were  ultimately  accepted  by  the  wiiole  learned  world 
as  rigid  and  conclusive  demonstrations.  It  is  })ossible,  al>o, 
for  as  complete  a  change  to  be  effected  by  what  is  called  tlie 
spirit  of  the  age.  The  general  intellectual  tendencies  per- 
vading the  literature  of  a  century  profoundly  modify  tlie 
character  of  the  public  mind.  They  form  a  new  tone  and 
habit  of  thought.  They  alter  the  measure  of  probability. 
They  create  new  attractions  and  new  antipathies,  and  they 
eventually  cause  as  absolute  a  rejection  of  certain  old  opin- 
ions as  could  be  produced  by  the  most  cogent  and  definite 
arguments. 

That  the  disbelief  in  witchcraft  is  to  be  attributed  to 
this  second  class  of  influences ;  that  it  is  the  result,  not  of 
any  series  of  definite  arguments,  or  of  new  discoveries,  but 
of  a  gradual,  insensible,  yet  profound  modification  of  the 
habits  of  thought  prevailing  in  Europe;  that  it  is,  thus,  a 
direct  consequence  of  the  progress  of  civilisation,  and  of  its 
influence  upon  opinions ;  must  be  evident  to  any  one  who 
impartially  investigates  the  question.  If  we  ask  what  new 
arguments  were  discovered  during  the  decadence  of  the  be- 
lief, we  must  admit  that  they  were  quite  inadequate  to  ac- 
count for  the  change.  All  that  we  can  say  of  tlie  unsatis- 
factory nature  of  confessions  under  torture,  of  the  instances 
.■)f  imposture  that  Avere  occasionally  discovered,  of  tlie  ma- 
licious motives  that  may  have  actuated  some  of  the  ac- 
cusers, miglit  have  been  said  during  the  darkest  periods  of 
the  middle  ages.  The  multiplication  of  books  and  the  in- 
crease of  knowledixe  can  have  added  nothino-  to  these  ob- 


36  EATIOXALISM   IX   EUKOPE. 

•\'ious  arguments.  Tliose  who  lived  when  the  evidences  of 
witchcraft  existed  in  profusion,  and  attracted  the  attention 
of  all  classes  and  of  all  grades  of  intellect,  must  surely  have 
been  as  competent  judges  as  ourselves,  if  the  question  was 
merely  a  question  of  evidence.  The  gradual  cessation  of 
the  accusations  was  the  consequence,  and  not  the  cause,  of 
tlie  scepticism.  The  progress  of  medical  knoAvledge  may 
have  had  considerable  influence  on  the  private  opinions  of 
some  writers  on  the  subject,  but  it  was  never  influential 
upon  the  public  mind,  or  made  the  battle-ground  of  the  con- 
troversy. Indeed,  the  philosophy  of  madness  is  mainly  due 
to  Pinel,  v>'ho  wrote  long  after  the  superstition  had  van- 
ished ;  and  even  if  witchcraft  had  been  treated  as  a  dis-ease, 
this  would  not  have  destroyed  the  belief  that  it  was  Satanic, 
in  an  age  when  all  the  more  startling  diseases  were  deemed 
supernatural,  and  when  theologians  maintained  that  Satan 
frequently  acted  by  the  employment  of  natural  laws.  One 
discovery,  it  is  true,  was  made  during  the  discussion,  which 
attracted  great  attention,  and  was  much  insisted  on  by  the 
opponents  of  the  laws  against  sorcery.  It  Avas,  that  the 
word  translated  'witch'  in  the  Levitical  condemnation  may 
be  translated  'poisoner.'^  This  discovery  in  itself  is,  how- 
ever, obviously  insufficient  to  account  for  the  change.  It 
does  not  afiect  the  enormous  mass  of  evidence  of  the  work- 
ings of  witchcraft,  which  was  once  supposed  to  have  placed 
the  belief  above  the  possibility  of  doubt.  It  does  n'ot  aflTect 
such  passages  as  the  history  of  the  witch  of  Endor,  or  of  the 
ilemoniacs  in  the  X'ew  Testament,  to  which  the  believers  in 

'  This  was  first,  I  believe,  asserted  by  Wier.  In  England  it  was  much 
maintained  during  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  The  other  side  of  the  question 
was  supported  on  the  Continent  by  Bodin,  and  in  England  by  Glanvil,  More. 
Caeaubon,  kc. 


MAGIC    AXD   WITCHCEAFT.  37 

witchcraft  triumphantly  appealed.  Assuming  the  existence 
of  witches — assuming  that  there  were  really  certain  persons 
who  were  constantly  engaged  in  inflicting,  by  diabolical 
agency,  every  form  of  evil  on  their  neighbours,  and  whose 
machinations  destroyed  countless  lives — there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  these  persons  should  be  punished  Avith  death, 
altogether  irrespectively  of  any  distinct  command.  The 
truth  is,  that  the  existence  of  witchcraft  w^as  disbelieved  be- 
fore the  scriptural  evidence  of  it  was  questioned.  A  disbe- 
lief in  ghosts  and  witches  Avas  one  of  the  most  prominent 
characteristics  of  scepticism  in  the  seventeenth  century.  At 
first  it  was  nearly  confined  to  men  Avho  w^ere  avowedly  free- 
thinkers, but  gradually  it  spread  over  a  wider  circle,  and 
included  almost  all  the  educated,  with  the  exception  of  a 
large  proportion  of  the  clergy.  This  progress,  however, 
was  not  effected  by  any  active  propagandism.  It  is  not 
identified  with  any  great  book  or  w^ith  any  famous  writer. 
It  was  not  the  triumph  of  one  series  of  arguments  over  an- 
other. On  the  contrary,  no  facts  are  more  clearly  estab- 
lished in  the  literature  of  witchcraft  than  that  the  movement 
was  mainly  silent,  unargumentative,  and  insensible ;  that 
men  came  gradually  to  disbelieve  in  witchcraft,  because  they^ 
came  gradually  to  look  upon  it  as  absurd ;  and  that  this  new 
tone  of  thought  appeared,  first  of  all,  in  those  who  were 
least  subject  to  theological  influences,  and  soon  spread 
through  the  educated  laity,  and  last  of  all  took  possession 
of  the  clergy. 

It  may  be  stated,  I  believe,  as  an  invariable  truth,  that, 
whenever  a  religion  which  rests  in  a  great  measure  on  a  sys- 
tem of  terrorism,  and  which  paints  in  dark  and  forcible  col-  v 
ours  the  misery  of  men  and  the  power  of  evil  spirits,  is  in- 
tensely realised,  it  will  engender  the  belief  in  witchcraft  or 


3S  RATIONALISM   IX    EUEOPE. 

magic.  The  panic  which  its  teachings  will  create,  wiL 
overbalance  the  faculties  of  multitudes.  The  awful  images 
of  evil  spirits  of  superhuman  power,  and  of  untiring  malig- 
nity, will  continually  haunt  the  imagination.  They  will 
blend  with  the  illusions  of  age  or  sorrow  or  sickness,  and 
will  appear  with  an  especial  vividness  in  the  more  alarming 
and  unex2:)lained  phenomena  of  nature. 

This  consideration  will  account  for  the  origin  of  the  con- 
ce2:)tion  of  magic  in  those  ages  when  belief  is  almost  exclu- 
sively the  work  of  the  imagination.  At  a  much  later  period, 
the  same  vivid  realisation  of  diabolical  presence  will  operate 
powerfully  on  the  conclusions  of  the  reason.  AYe  have  now 
passed  so  completely  out  of  the  modes  of  thought  which 
predominated  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  and 
we  are  so  firmly  convinced  of  the  unreality  of  witchcraft, 
that  it  is  only  by  a  strong  effort  of  the  imagination  that  we 
can  realise  the  position  of  the  defenders  of  the  belief.  Yet  it 
is,  I  think,  difficult  to  examine  the  subject  with  impartiality, 
without  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  the  historical  evidence 
establishing  the  reality  of  Avitchcraft  is  so  vast  and  so  varied, 
that  it  is  impossible  to  disbelieve  it  without  what,  on  other 
subjects,  we  should  deem  the  most  extraordinary  rashness. 
The  defenders  of  the  belief,  who  were  often  men  of  great  and 
distinguished  talent,  maintained  that  there  was  no  fact  in  all 
history  more  fully  attested,  and  that  to  reject  it  would  be  to 
strike  at  the  root  of  all  historical  evidence  of  the  miraculous. 
The  belief  implied  the  continual  occurrence  of  acts  of  the 
most  extraordinary  and  imi^ressive  character,  and  of  such  a 
nature  as  to  fall  strictly  within  human  cognisance.  The 
subject,  as  we  liave  seen,  was  examined  in  tens  of  thousands 
of  cases,  in  almost  every  country  in  Euroj^e,  by  tribunals 
which  included  the  acutest  lawyers  and  ecclesiaytics  of  the 


MAGIC    AND   WITCnCEAFT.  39 

age,  on  the  scene  and  at  the  time  when  the  alleged  acts  had 
taken  place,  and  with  the  assistance  of  innumerable  sworn 
witnesses.  The  judges  had  no  motive  whatever  to  desire  the 
condemnation  of  the  accused ;  and,  as  conviction  would  be 
followed  by  a  fearful  death,  they  had  the  strongest  motives 
to  exercise  their  230wer  with  caution  and  deliberation.  The 
whole  force  of  public  opinion  was  directed  constantly  and 
earnestly  to  the  question  for  many  centuries ;  and,  although 
there  was  some  controversy  concerning  the  details  of  Avitch- 
craft,  the  fact  of  its  existence  was  long  considered  undoubted. 
The  evidence  is  essentially  cumulative.  Some  cases  may  be  . 
explained  by  monomania,  others  by  imposture,  others  by  A 
chance  coincidences,  and  others  by  optical  delusions;  but, 
when  we  consider  the  multitudes  of  strange  statements  that  ' 
were  sworn  and  registered  in  legal  documents,  it  is  very  dif- 
ficult to  frame  a  general  rationalistic  explanation  which  will 
not  involve  an  extreme  improbability.  In  our  own  day,  it 
may  be  said  with  confidence,  that  it  would  be  altogether 
impossible  for  such  an  amount  of  evidence  to  accumulate 
round  a  conception  which  had  no  substantial  basis  in  fact. 
The  ages  in  which  witchcraft  flourished  were,  it  is  true, 
grossly  credulous ;  and  to  this  fact  we  attribute  the  belief,  \ 
yet  we  do  not  reject  their  testimony  on  all  matters  of  secular 
history.  If  we  considered  witchcraft  probable,  a  hundredth 
part  of  the  evidence  we  possess  would  have  placed  it  be- 
yond the  region  of  doubt.  If  it  were  a  natural  but  a  very 
improbable  fact,  our  reluctance  to  believe  it  would  have 
been  completely  stifled  by  the  multijJiicity  of  the  proofs. 

]S"ow,  it  is  evident  that  the  degree  of  improbability  we 
attach  to  histories  of  witches,  will  depend,  in  a  great  meas- 
ure, upon  our  doctrine  concerning  evil  spirits,  and  upon  the 
deirree  in  which  that  doctrine  is  realised.     If  men  believe 


iO  KATIOXALISM   IN   ECKOPE. 

that  invisible  beings,  of  superhuman  power,  restless  activity, 
and  intense  malignity,  are  perpetually  haunting  the  world, 
and  directing  all  their  energies  to  the  temptation  and  the 
persecution  of  mankind ;  if  they  believe  that,  in  past  ages, 
these  spirits  have  actually  governed  the  bodily  functions  of 
men,  worked  miracles,  and  foretold  future  events, — if  all 
this  is  believed,  not  with  the  dull  and  languid  assent  of  cus- 
tom, but  with  an  intensely  realised,  living,  and  operative  as- 
surance ;  if  it  presents  itself  to  the  mind  and  imagination  as 
a  vivid  truth,  exercising  that  influence  over  the  reason,  and 
occupying  that  prominence  in  the  thoughts  of  men,  which 
its  importance  would  demand,  the  antecedent  improbability 
of  witchcraft  would  appear  far  less  than  if  this  doctrine  was 
rejected  or  was  unrealised.  When,  therefore,  we  find  a 
growing  disposition  to  reject  every  history  which  involves 
diabolical  intervention  as  intrinsically  absurd,  independently 
of  any  examination  of  the  evidence  on  which  it  rests,  we 
may  infer  from  this  fact  the  declining  realisation  of  the  doc- 
trine of  evil  spirits. 

These  two  considerations  will  serve,  I  think,  to  explain 
the  history  of  witchcraft,  and  also  to  show  its  great  signifi- 
cance and  importance  as  an  index  of  the  course  of  civilisa- 
tion. To  follow  out  the  subject  into  details  would  require  a 
far  greater  space  than  I  can  assign  to  it,  but  I  hope  to  be 
able  to  show,  sufiiciently,  what  have  been  the  leading  phases 
through  which  the  belief  has  passed. 

In  the  ruder  forms  of  savage  life,  we  find  the  belief  in 
witchcraft  universal,^  and  accompanied,  in  most  instances, 
by  features  of  peculiar  atrocity.  The  reason  of  this  is  ob 
vious.      Terror   is   every Avhere   the   beginning   of   religion, 

'  On  the  universality  of  the  belief,  sec  Herder,  rhllosophy  of  Histonj^  b, 
viii.  e.  2;  Maury,  Histjirc  (h  Majie^  j^isslin. 


MAGIC    AXD   WirCIICRxVFT.  41 

The  2)lienomena  whicli  impress  themselves  most  forcibly  on 
the  mind  of  the  savage  are  not  those  which  enter  manifestly 
into  the  sequence  of  natural  laws  and  which  are  productive 
of  most  beneficial  effects,  but  those  which  are  disastrous  and 
apparently  abnormal.  Gratitude  is  less  vivid  than  fear,  and 
the  smallest  apparent  infraction  of  a  natural  law  produces  a 
deeper  impression  than  the  most  sublime  of  its  ordinary  oper- 
ations. When,  therefore,  the  more  startling  and  terrible 
aspects  of  nature  are  presented  to  his  mind,  when  the  more 
deadly  forms  of  disease  or  natural  convulsion  desolate  his 
land,  the  savage  derives  from  these  things  an  intensely 
realised  perception  of  diabolical  presence.  In  the  darkness 
of  the  night ;  amid  the  yawning  chasms  and  the  wild  echoes 
of  the  mountain  gorge ;  under  the  blaze  of  the  comet,  or  the 
solemn  gloom  of  the  eclipse ;  when  famine  has  blasted  the 
land ;  when  the  earthquake  and  the  pestilence  have  slaugh- 
tered their  thousands ;  in  every  form  of  disease  which  refracts 
and  distorts  the  reason ;  in  all  that  is  strange,  portentous, 
and  deadly,  he  feels  and  coAvers  before  the  supernatural. 
Completely  exposed  to  all  the  influences  of  nature,  and  com- 
pletely ignorant  of  the  chain  of  sequence  that  unites  its 
various  parts,  he  lives  in  continual  dread  of  what  lie  deems 
the  direct  and  isolated  acts  of  evil  spirits.  Feeling  them 
continually  near  him,  he  will  naturally  endeavour  to  enter 
into  communion  with  them.  He  will  strive  to  propitiate 
them  with  gifts.  If  some  great  calamity  has  fallen  upon 
him,  or  if  some  vengeful  passion  has  mastered  his  reason, 
lie  will  attempt  to  invest  himself  with  their  authority ;  and 
Lis  excited  imagination  will  soon  persuade  him  that  he  has 
succeeded  in  his  desire.  If  his  abilities  and  his  ambition 
place  him  above  the  common  level,  he  will  find  in  this  belief 
the  most  ready  path  to  power.     By  professing  to  hold  com- 


4:2  EATIOXALISM   IX    EUROPE. 

munion  with  and  to  control  supernatural  beings,  he  can  ex- 
ercise an  almost  boundless  influence  over  those  about  him  ^ 
and,  among  men  who  are  intensely  predis250sed  to  believe  in 
the  supernatural,  a  very  little  dexterity  or  acquaintance  with 
natural  laws  will  support  his  pretensions.  By  converting 
the  terror  which  some  great  calamity  has  produced  into 
anorer  asrainst  an  alleo'ed  sorcerer,  he  can  at  the  same  time 
take  a  signal  vengeance  upon  those  who  have  offended  him, 
and  increase  the  sense  of  his  own  imj^ortance.  Those  whose 
habits,  or  appearance,  or  knowledge,  separate  them  from  the 
I  multitude,  will  be  naturally  suspected  of  communicating 
with  evil  spirits  ;  and  this  suspicion  will  soon  become  a  cer- 
tainty, if  any  mental  disease  should  aggravate  their  peculi- 
arities. In  this  manner  the  influences  of  isjnorance,  imao'ina- 
tion,  and  imposture  will  blend  and  cooperate  in  creating  a 
belief  in  witchcraft,  and  in  exciting  a  hatred  against  those 
who  are  suspected  of  its  practice,  commensurate  with  the 
terror  they  inspire. 

In  a  more  advanced  stage  of  civilisation,  the  fear  of 
witches  will  naturally  fade,  as  the  habits  of  artificial  life 
remove  men  from  those  influences  which  act  upon  the  imagi- 
nation, and  as  increasing  knowledge  explains  some  of  the 
more  alarming  phenomena  of  nature.  The  belief,  however, 
that  it  is  possible,  by  supernatural  agency,  to  inflict  evil 
upon  mankind,  was  general  in  ancient  Greece  and  Rome ; 
and  St.  Augustine  assures  us  that  all  the  sects  of  philoso- 
phers admitted  it,  with  the  exception  of  the  Epicureans, 
who  denied  the  existence  of  evil  spirits.  The  Decemvirs 
passed  a  law  condemning  magicians  to  death.  A  similar 
law  was  early  enacted  in  Greece;  and,  in  the  days  of  Demos- 
thenes, a  sorceress  named  Lemia  was  actually  executed.' 
*  Garinet,  pp.  13,  14. 


MAGIC   AND   WITCKCEAFT.  43 

Tlie  philosophy  of  Plato,  by  greatly  aggrandising  the 
sphere  of  the  spiritual,  did  much  to  foster  the  belief;  and 
vre  lind  that  whenever,  either  before  or  after  tlie  Christian 
era,  that  philosophy  has  been  in  the  ascendant,  it  has  been 
accompanied  by  a  tendency  to  magic.  Besides  this,  the  an- 
cient civilisations  were  never  directed  earnestly  to  the  inves- 
tigation of  natural  phenomena ;  and  the  progress  made  in 
this  respect  was,  in  consequence,  very  small.  On  the  whole, 
however,  the  persecution  seems  to  have  been,  in  those  coun- 
tries, almost  entirely  free  from  religious  fanaticism.  The 
magician  was  punished  because  he  injured  man,  and  not  be- 
cause he  offended  God. 

In  one  respect,  during  the  later  period  of  Pagan  Rome, 
the  laws  against  magic  seem  to  have  revived,  and  to  have 
taken  a  somewhat  different  form,  without,  however,  repre- 
senting any  phase  of  a  religious  movement,  but  simply  a  po- 
litical requirement.  Under  the  head  of  magic  were  com- 
prised some  astrological  and  other  methods  of  foretelling 
the  future ;  and  it  was  found  that  these  practices  had  a 
strong  tendency  to  foster  conspiracies  against  the  emperors. 
The  soothsayer  often  assured  persons  that  they  were  des- 
tined to  assume  the  purple,  and  in  that  way  stimulated  them 
to  rebellion.  By  casting  the  horoscope  of  tlie  reigning  em- 
l^eror,  he  had  ascertained,  according  to  the  popular  belief, 
the  period  in  which  the  government  might  be  assailed  with 
most  prospect  of  success  ;  and  had  thus  proved  a  constant 
cause  of  agitation.  Some  of  the  forms  of  magic  had,  also, 
been  lately  imported  into  the  empire  from  Greece  ;  and  were 
therefore  repugnant  to  the  conservative  spirit  that  was 
dominant.  Several  of  the  emperors,  in  consequence,  passed 
edicts  ao'ainst   the  maoricians,  Avhich   were   executed   with 


44  EATIOXALISM   IX    EUKOPE. 

considorable  though  somewhat  spasmodic  energy.^  But  al- 
though magicians  were  occasionally  persecuted,  it  is  not  to 
be  inferred  from  this  that  everything  that  was  comprised 
under  the  name  of  magic  was  considered  morally  Atrong. 
On  the  contrary,  many  of  the  systems  of  divination  formed 
an  integral  part  of  religion.  Some  of  the  more  public 
modes  of  foretelling  the  future,  such  as  the  oracles  of  the 
gods,  were  still  retained  and  honoured ;  and  a  law,  which 
made  divination  concerning  the  future  of  the  emperor  higli 
treason,  shows  clearly  the  spirit  in  which  the  others  were 
suppressed.  The  emperors  desired  to  monopolise  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  future,  and  consequently  drew  many  astrologers 
to  their  courts,  while  they  banished  them  from  other  parts 
of  the  kingdom.''  They  were  so  far  from  attaching  the  idea 
of  sacrilege  to  practices  which  enabled  them  to  foretell 
coming  events,  that  Marcus  Aurelius  and  Julian,  who  were 
both  passionately  attached  to  their  religion,  and  who  were 
among  the  best  men  who  have  ever  sat  upon  a  throne,  were 
among  the  most  ardent  of  the  patrons  of  the  magicians. 

Such  was  the  somewhat  anomalous  position  of  the  magi- 
cians in  the  last  days  of  Pagan  Rome,  and  it  acquires  a 
great  interest  from  its  bearing  on  the  policy  of  the  Christian 
emperors. 

When  the  Christians  were  first  scattered  through  tlie 
Roman  empire,  they  naturally  looked  upon  this  question  with 
a  very  different  spirit  from  that  of  the  heathen.  Insj^ired 
by  an  intense  religious  enthusiasm,  which  they  Avere  nobly 
ficaling  with  their  blood,  they  thought  much  less  of  the  civil 

*  This  very  obscure  branch  of  the  subject  has  been  most  admirably  treated 
by  Maury,  Hlstolre  de  la  2fagie  (Paris,  1860),  pp.  78-85.  An  extremely 
learned  and  able  work,  from  which  I  have  derived  great  assistance. 

'  Miury,  ch.  iv. 


MAGIC   AND   WITCIICKAFT.  45 

than  of  tlie  religious  consequences  of  magic,  and  sacrilege 
seemed  much  more  terrible  in  their  eyes  than  anarchy.  Their 
position,  acting  upon  some  of  their  distinctive  doctrines,  had 
filled  them  with  a  sense  of  Satanic  presence,  which  must  have 
Fhadowed  every  portion  of  their  belief,  and  have  predisposed 
llieni  to  discover  diabolical  influence  in  every  movement  of 
tlie  pagnn.  The  fearful  conception  of  eternal  punishment, 
adopted  in  its  most  material  form,  had  flashed  with  its  full 
intensity  upon  their  minds.  They  believed  that  this  was  the 
destiny  of  all  who  were  beyond  the  narrow  circle  of  their 
Church,  and  that  their  j^ersecutors  were  doomed  to  agonies 
of  especial  poignancy.  The  whole  world  was  divided  be- 
tween the  kingdom  of  God  and  the  kingdom  of  Satan.  The 
persecuted  Church  represented  the  first,  the  persecuting 
world  the  second.  In  every  scofl"  that  was  directed  against 
their  creed,  in  every  edict  that  menaced  their  persons,  in 
every  interest  that  opposed  their  progress,  they  perceived 
the  direct  and  immediate  action  of  the  devil.  They  found  a 
great  and  ancient  religion  subsisting  around  them.  Its  gor- 
geous rites,  its  traditions,  its  priests,  and  its  miracles  had 
preoccupied  the  public  mind,  and  presented  what  seemed  at 
first  an  insuperable  barrier  to  their  mission.  In  this  religion 
they  saw  the  especial  workmanship  of  the  devil,  and  their 
strong  predisposition  to  interpret  every  event  by  a  miracu- 
lous standard,  persuided  them  that  all  its  boasted  prodigies 
were  real.  Xor  did  they  find  any  difliculty  in  explaining 
them.  The  world  they  believed  to  be  full  of  malignant 
demons,  Avho  had  in  all  ages  persecuted  and  deluded  man- 
kind. From  the  magicians  of  Egypt  to  the  demoniacs  of  the 
New  Testament,  theii*  power  had  been  continually  manifested. 
In  the  chosen  land  they  could  only  persecute  and  afflict ;  but. 


46  EATIOXALISM   IX   EUROPE. 

among  the  heathen,  they  possessed  supreme  power,  and  were 
universally  worshipped  as  divine. 

This  doctrine,  which  was  the  natural  consequence  of  the 
intellectual  condition  of  the  age,  acting  upon  the  belief  in  evil 
spirits,  and  upon  the  scriptural  accounts  of  diabolical  inter- 
vention, had  been  still  further  strengthened  by  those  Platonic 
theories  which,  in  their  Alexandrian  form,  had  so  profoundly 
influenced  the  early  teachings  of  the  Church.'  According  to 
these  theories,  the  immediate  objects  of  the  devotions  of  the 
pagan  world  ^vere  subsidiary  spirits  of  finite  power  and 
imperfect  morality — angels,  or,  as  they  were  then  called, 
demons — who  acted  the  part  of  mediators ;  and  who,  by  the 
permission  of  the  supreme  and  inaccessible  Deity,  regulated 
the  religious  government  of  mankind.  In  this  manner,  a 
comj^romise  was  effected  between  monotheism  and  polythe- 
ism. The  religion  of  the  state  was  true  and  lawful,  but  it 
was  not  irreconcilable  with  pure  theism.  The  Christians  had 
adopted  this  conception  of  subsidiary  spirits  ;  but  they  main- 
tained them  to  be  not  the  willing  agents,  but  the  adversaries, 
of  the  Deity ;  and  the  word  demon,  which,  among  the  pa- 


^  The  Alexandrian  or  Neo-Platonic  school  probably  owed  a  great  part  of  its 
influence  over  early  Christianity  to  its  doctrine  of  a  divine  Trinity — the  Unity, 
the  Logos,  and  the  energising  Spirit — which  was  thought  by  some  to  harmonise 
with  the  Christian  doctrine.  Many  persons  have  believed  that  Xeo-Platonic 
modes  both  of  thought  and  expression  are  reflected  in  St.  John's  Gospel.  The 
influence  which  this  school  exercised  over  Christianity  forms  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  pages  in  ecclesiastical  history.  From  it  the  orthodox  derived  a 
great  part  of  tlicir  metaphysics ;  and,  in  a  great  measure,  their  doctrine  con- 
ceniing  the  worship  of  demons,  to  which  St.  Paul  was  long  thought  to  have 
alluded.  From  it  the  Gnostics,  the  first  important  sect  of  Christian  heretics, 
obtained  their  central  doctrine  of  the  ^Eons,  which  Julian  endeavoured  to  con- 
solidate into  a  rival  system.  On  the  doctrine  of  the  demons,  in  its  relation  to 
heathen  worship,  see  the  chapter  on  Xeo-Platouism  in  Maury,  and  the  curious 
argument,  based  on  the  Platonic  theory,  wliich  occupies  the  greater  part  of  the 
eighth  book  of  the  De  Cbntate  Dei. 


MAGIC    AND   WITCHCEAFT.  47 

gans,  signified  only  a  spirit  below  the  level  of  a  Divinity, 
among  the  Christians  signified  a  devil. 

This  notion  seems  to  have  existed  in  the  very  earliest 
period  of  Christianity  ;  and,  in  the  second  century,  we  find  it 
elaborated  with  most  minute  and  detailed  care.  Tertullian, 
who  wrote  in  that  century,  assures  us  that  the  world  was  full 
of  these  evil  spirits,  whose  influence  might  be  descried  in 
every  portion  of  the  pagan  creed.  Some  of  them  belonged 
to  that  band  of  rebels  who  had  been  precipitated  with  Satan 
into  the  abyss.  Others  were  the  angels  who,  in  the  antedi- 
luvian world,  had  become  attached  to  the  daughters  of  men; 
and  wdio,  having  taught  them  to  dye  wool,  and  to  commit 
the  still  more  fearful  offence  of  painting  their  faces,  had  been 
justly  doomed  to  eternal  suffering.'  These  were  now  seeking 
in  every  vray  to  thwart  the  purposes  of  the  Almighty,  and 
their  especial  delight  was  to  attract  to  themselves  the  wor- 
ship which  was  due  to  Him  alone.  Not  only  the  more 
immoral  deities  of  heathenism,  not  only  such  divinities  as 
Venus,  or  3Iars,  or  Mercury,  or  Pluto,  but  also  those  who 
appeared  the  most  pure,  were  literally  and  undoubtedly 
diabolical.  Minerva,  the  personification  of  Avisdom,  was  a 
devil,  and  so  was  Diana,  the  type  of  chastity,  and  so  was 
Jupiter,  the  heathen  conception  of  the  Most  High.  The 
spirits  wdio  were  worshipped  under  the  names  of  departed 
heroes,  and  T^-ho  were  supposed  to  have  achieved  so   many 

^  De  Culm  Foeminarumy  lib.  i.  c.  2.  This  curious  notiou  is  given  ou  the 
authority  of  the  prophecy  of  Euoch,  which  was  thought  by  some — and  Tertul- 
lian seems  to  have  inclined  to  their  opinion — to  be  authoritative  Scripture.  St. 
Augustine  suggests,  that  the  '  angels '  who  were  attached  to  the  antediluvi;ins 
were  possibly  devils — incubi,  as  they  were  called — and  that  the  word  angel,  in 
the  writings  attributed  to  Enoch,  and  in  all  parts  of  Scripture,  signifying  only 
messenger,  may  be  applied  to  any  spirit,  good  or  bad.  (Dc  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  xv. 
cap.  23.)  This  rule  of  interpretation  had,  as  we  shall  see,  an  important  in- 
fluence on  the  later  theology  of  witchcraft. 


48  BATIOXALISM   IX   EUKOrE. 

acts  of  splendid  and  pliilantliroi^ic  heroism,  were  all  devils 
who  had  assumed  the  names  of  the  dead.  The  same  con- 
demnation was  passed  upon  those  bright  creations  of  a  poetic 
fancy,  the  progenitors  of  the  mediaeval  fairies,  the  nymphs 
and  dryads  who  peopled  every  grove  and  hallowed,  every 
stream.^  The  air  was  filled  with  unholy  legions,'  and  the 
traditions  of  every  land  were  replete  with  their  ex2:>loits. 
The  immortal  lamp,  which  burnt  with  an  unfading  splendour 
in  the  temple  of  Venus;  the  household  gods  that  were 
transported  by  invisible  hands  through  the  air ;  the  miracles 
which  clustered  so  thickly  around  the  vestal  virgins,  the 
oracular  shrines,  and  the  centres  of  Roman  power,  were  all 
attestations  of  their  jDresence.  Under  the  names  of  Sylvans 
and  Fauns,  and  Dusii,  they  had  not  only  frequently  appeared 
among  mankind,  but  had  made  innumerable  women  the 
objects  of  their  passion.  This  fact  was  so  amply  attested, 
that  it  would  be  impudence  to  deny  it.^     Persons  possessed 

^  Much  the  same  notions  were  long  after  held  about  the  fairies.  A  modern 
French  wi-iter  states,  that  till  near  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  mass 
was  annually  celebrated  in  the  Abbey  of  Poissy,  for  the  preservation  of  the  nuns 
from  their  power.     (Des  Mousseaux,  Pratiques  des  Demons^  p.  81.) 

^  One  sect  of  heretics  of  the  fourth  century — the  Messalians — went  so  iav  as 
to  make  spitting  a  religious  exercise,  in  hopes  of  thus  casting  out  the  devils 
they  inhaled.     (Maury,  p.  SlY.) 

^  '  Hoc  negare  impudeutiffi  videatur '  (St.  Aug.  De  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  xv.  cap.  23). 
The  Saint,  however,  proceeds  to  say,  '  Non  hie  aliquid  audeo  temere  definire.' — 
See  also  Justin  Martyr,  Ap.  c.  v.  The  same  notion  was  perpetuated  through 
the  succeeding  ages,  and  marriage  with  devils  was  long  one  of  the  most  ordi- 
nary accusations  in  the  witch  trials.  The  devils  who  appeared  in  the  female 
form  were  generally  called  succubi,  those  who  appeared  like  men,  iucubi 
(though  this  distinction  was  not  always  preserved).  The  former  were  com- 
paratively rare,  but  Bodin  mentions  a  priest  who  had  commerce  with  one  for 
more  than  forty  years,  and  another  priest  who  found  a  faithful  mistress  in  a 
devil  for  half  a  century :  they  were  both  burnt  alive  (Demonomanie  des  So7-cie7-s, 
p.  107).  Luther  was  a  firm  believer  in  this  intercourse  (Ibid.).  The  incubi 
were  much  more  common ;  and  Inuidrcds,  perhaps  thousands,  of  women  have 
been  burnt  on  account  of  the  belief  in  them.     It  was  observed,  that  they  had  a 


MAGIC   AXD   WITCHCRAFT.  49 

with  devils  were  constantly  liberated  by  the  Christians,  and 
tombs  of  the  exorcists  have  been  discovered  in  the  cata- 
combs/ If  a  Christian  in  any  respect  deviated  from  tlie 
path  of  duty,  a  visible  manifestation  of  the  devil  sometimes 
appeared  to  terrify  him.  A  Christian  lady,  in  a  fit  ol' 
thoughtless  dissipation,  w^ent  to  the  theatre,  and  at  the 
theatre  she  became  possessed  with  a  devil.  The  exorcist 
remonstrated  with  the  evil  spirit  on  the  presumption  of  its 
act.     The  devil  replied  apologetically,  that  it  had  found  the 


peculiar  attachment  to  women  with  boautifal  hair;  and  it  was  an  old  Catholic 
belief,  that  St.  Paul  alluded  to  this  in  that  somewhat  curious  passage,  in  which 
he  exhorts  women  to  cover  their  heads,  because  of  the  'angels'  (Sprenger, 
Mall.  Mai.,  Pars  i.  Quaest.  4  ;  and  Pars  ii.  Quaest.  2).  The  incubi  generally 
had  no  children,  but  there  were  some  exceptions  to  this  rule,  for  Nider  the 
inquisitor  assures  us,  that  the  island  of  Cyprus  was  entirely  peopled  by  their 
sons  {Mall.  Maliji.,  p.  522),  The  ordinary  phenomenon  of  nightmare,  as  the 
name  imports,  was  associated  with  this  belief  (see  a  curious  passage  in  Bodin, 
p.  109).  The  Dusii,  whose  exploits  St.  Augustine  mentions,  were  Celtic  spirits, 
and  are  the  origin  of  our  '  Deuce '  (Maury,  p.  189).  For  the  much  more  cheer- 
ful views  of  the  Cabalists,  and  other  secret  societies  of  the  middle  ages,  con- 
cerning the  intercourse  of  philosophers  with  sylphs,  salamanders,  &c.,  see  that 
very  curious  and  amusing  book,  Le  Comte  de  Gabalis,  ou  Entretiens  sur  les 
Sciences  Secretes  (Paris,  1671).  Lihth,  the  first  wife  of  Adam,  concerning 
whom  the  Kabbinical  traditions  are  so  full,  who  was  said  to  suck  the  blood  of 
infants,  and  from  whose  name  the  word  lullaby  (Lili  Abi)  is  supposed  by  some 
to  have  been  derived,  was  long  regarded  as  the  queen  of  the  succubi  (Plancev, 
Diet.  Inf.,  art.  Lilith).  The  Greeks  believed  that  nightmare  resulted  from  the 
presence  of  a  demon  named  Ephialtes. 

^  There  is  one  of  these  inscriptions  in  the  Museum  at  the  Latcran,  and 
another  in  the  catacomb  of  St.  Callista.  In  the  Church  of  Rome  there  is  an 
order  of  exorcists,  whose  functions  are  confined  to  baptisms  ;  and  with  these 
Mr.  Spencer  Xorthcote,  in  his  book  on  the  Catacombs,  identifies  the  ancient 
inscriptions.  I  have  not  done  so,  because  it  is  quite  certain  that,  in  primitive 
Christianity,  the  practice  of  exorcising  possessed  persons  was  general;  and 
because  Sprenger  asserts,  that  the  employment  of  exorcising  at  baptisms  was 
not  introduced  till  a  later  period  {Mall.  Mai,  Pars  ii.  Qutest.  2).  Sprenger 
does  not  give  his  authority,  but  as  he  is  usually  well  informed  on  matters  of 
tradition,  and  as  he  treats  the  omission  as  a  difficulty,  I  have  adopted  his  view 
See  also  Neander's  Hist.,  vol.  ii,  p.  370. 


50  EATIOXALISil   IN    EUEOPE. 

woman  in  its  house/  The  rites  of  paganism  had  in  some 
degree  perv^aded  all  de^Dartments  of  life,  and  all  Avere  there- 
fore tainted  with  diabolical  influence.  In  the  theatre,  in  the 
circus,  in  the  market-place,  in  all  the  public  festivals,  there 
was  something  which  manifested  their  presence.  A  Chris- 
tian soldier,  on  one  occasion,  refused  even  to  wear  a  festal 
crown,  because  laurels  had  been  originally  dedicated  to 
Bacchus  and  Venus ;  and  endured  severe  punishment  rather 
than  comply  with  the  custom.  Much  discussion  was  elicited 
by  the  ti'ansaction,  but  Tertullian  wrote  a  treatise  '  maintain- 
ing that  the  martyr  had  only  complied  with  his  strict  duty. 

The  terror  which  such  a  doctrine  must  have  spread  among 
the  early  Christians  may  be  easily  conceived.  They  seemed 
to  breathe  an  atmosphere  of  miracles.  Wherever  they  turn- 
ed, they  were  surrounded  and  beleaguered  by  malicious 
spirits,  Avho  were  perpetually  manifesting  their  presence  by 
supernatural  acts.  Watchful  fiends  stood  beside  every  altar; 
they  mingled  with  every  avocation  of  life,  and  the  Christians 
were  the  special  objects  of  their  hatred.  All  this  was  uni- 
versally believed ;  and  it  was  realised  Avith  an  intensity 
Avhich,  in  this  secular  age,  Ave  can  scarcely  conceiA'C.  It  was 
realised  as  men  realise  religious  doctrines,  Avhen  they  have 
dcA^oted  to  them  the  undiA^ided  energies  of  their  Ua^cs,  and 
when  their  faith  has  been  intensified  in  the  furnace  of  per- 
secution. 

'  Tevtulllan  De  SpedacuUs,  cap.  xxvi.  Another  woman,  this  writer  assures 
us,  having  gone  to  see  an  actor,  dreamed  all  the  following  night  of  a  winding 
sheet,  and  heard  the  actor's  name  ringing,  with  frightful  reproaches,  in  her 
ears.  To  pass  to  a  much  later  period,  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  in  the  sixth 
centur}-,  mentions  a  nun  who,  when  walking  in  a  garden,  began  to  eat  without 
making  the  sign  of  the  cross.  She  had  a  bitter  cause  to  repent  of  her  indecent 
haste,  for  she  immediately  swallowed  a  devil  in  a  lettuce  {Dialogic  lib.  i.  c.  4). 
The  whole  passage,  which  is  rather  long  for  quotation,  is  extremely  curious. 

"  De  Corona. 


MAGIC    AND    WITCIICKAFT.  61 

The  bearing  of  this  view  upon  the  conception  of  magic 
is  very  obvious.  xVmong  the  more  civilised  pagans,  as  we 
have  seen,  magic  Avas  mainly  a  civil,  and  in  the  last  days  of 
the  empire,  mainly  a  political  crime.  In  periods  of  great  po- 
litical insecurity,  it  assumed  considerable  importance;  at 
other  periods  it  fell  completely  into  the  background.  Its 
relation  to  the  prevailing  religion  was  exceedingly  indeter- 
minate, and  it  comprised  many  rites  that  were  not  regarded 
as  in  any  degree  immoral.  In  the  early  Church,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  was  esteemed  the  most  horrible  form  of  sacri- 
lege, effected  by  the  direct  agency  of  evil  spirits.  It  in- 
cluded the  whole  system  of  paganism,  explained  all  its 
prodigies,  and  gave  a  fearful  significance  to  all  its  legends. 
It  assumed,  in  consequence,  an  extraordinary  importance  in 
the  patristic  teaching,  and  acted  strongly  and  continually 
on  the  imaginations  of  the  people. 

When  the  Church  obtained  the  direction  of  the  civil 
power,  she  soon  modified  or  abandoned  the  tolerant  maxims 
she  had  formerly  inculcated;  and,  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years,  restrictive  laws  were  enacted,  both  against  the  Jews 
and  against  the  heretics.  It  appears,  however,  that  the  nnil- 
titude  of  pagans,  in  the  time  of  Constantine,  was  still  so 
great,  and  the  zeal  of  the  emperor  so  languid,  that  he 
at  first  shrank  from  directing  his  laws  openly  and  avowedly 
against  the  old  faith,  and  an  ingenious  expedient  was  de- 
vised for  sapping  it  at  its  base,  under  the  semblance  of  the 
ancient  legislation.  Magic,  as  I  have  said,  among  the  Ro- 
mans, included  not  only  those  appeals  to  evil  spirits,  and 
tliose  modes  of  inflicting  evil  on  others,  which  had  always 
been  denounced  as  sacrilegious,  but  also  certain  methods  of 
foretelling  the  future,  "which  were  not  regarded  as  morally 
wrong,  but  only  as   politically  dangerous.     This  latter  de- 


52  EATIOXALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

partment  formed  an  oflslioot  of  the  established  religion,  and 
had  never  been  separated  from  it  with  precision.  The  laws 
had  been  devised  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  rebellions  or 
imposition,  and  they  had  been  executed  in  that  spirit.  The 
Christian  emperors  revived  these  laAvs,  and  enforced  them 
with  extreme  severity,  but  directed  them  against  the  religion 
of  the  pagans.^  At  first,  that  secret  magic  which  the  decem- 
virs had  prohibited,  but  which  had  afterwards  come  into 
general  use,  was  alone  condemned ;  but,  in  the  course  of  a 
few  reigns,  the  circle  of  legislation  expanded,  till  it  included 
the  whole  system  of  paganism. 

x\lmost  immediately  after  liis  conversion,  Constantino 
enacted  an  extremely  severe  law  against  secret  magic.  He 
decreed  that  any  aruspex  who  entered  into  the  house  of  a 
citizen,  for  the  purpose  of  celebrating  his  rites,  should  be 
burnt  alive,  the  property  of  his  employers  confiscated,  and 
the  accuser  rewarded.'^  Two  years  later,  however,  a  procla- 
mation was  issued,  which  considerably  attenuated  the  force 
of  this  enactment,  for  it  declared  that  it  was  not  the  inten- 
tion of  the  emperor  to  proliibit  magical  rites  which  were 
designed  to  discover  remedies  for  diseases,  or  to  protect  the 
harvests  from  hail,  snow,  or  tempests." 

This  partial  tolerance  continued  till  the  death  of  Con- 
stantine,  but  completely  passed  away  under  his  successor. 
Constantiiis  appears  to  have  been  governed  by  far  stronger 

^  The  history  of  this  movement  has  been  traced  Avith  masterly  abiUty  by 
Maury,  Siir  la  3far/ie,  and  also  by  Beuguot,  Dcsfrudlcn  de  Par/anisme  dans 
V  Occident. 

-  Codex  Thcqdosianus,  lib.  ix.  tit.  xvi.  e.  1,  2.  The  pagan  historian  Zosi- 
mus  observes,  that  when  Constantino  had  abandoned  his  country's  gods  '  he 
made  this  beginning  of  impiety,  that  he  looked  with  contempt  on  the  art  of 
foretelling '  (lib.  ii,  c.  29) ;  and  Eusebius  classifies  his  prohibition  of  prophecy 
ivith  the  measures  directed  openly  against  paganism.    {Vita  Co7isf. ,\ih.  i.  c.  IC^J) 

^  Cod.  TK  lib,  ix.  t.  xvi.  1.  3 


MAGIC    A]S'D   WITCIICEAFT.  53 

convictions  than  liis  father.  He  had  embraced  the  Arian 
Iieresy,  and  is  said  to  have  been  much  influenced  by  the 
Arian  priests ;  and  lie  directed  his  laws  with  a  stern  and  al- 
most passionate  eagerness  against  the  forms  of  magic  which 
verged  most  closely  upon  the  pagan  worship.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  one  of  these  laws,  he  complained  that  many  had 
been  producing  tempests  and  destroying  the  lives  of  their 
enemies  by  the  assistance  of  the  demons,  and  he  proceeded 
to  prohibit  in  the  sternest  manner,  and  under  pain  of  the 
severest  penalties,  every  kind  of  magic.  All  who  attempted 
to  foretell  the  future — the  augurs,  as  well  as  the  more 
irregular  diviners — were  emphatically  condemned.  Magi- 
cians who  were  captured  in  Rome  were  to  be  thrown  to  the 
wild  beasts ;  and  those  who  were  seized  in  the  provinces  to  f 
be  put  to  excruciating  torments,  and  at  last  crucified.  If 
they  persisted  in  denying  their  crime,  their  flesh  was  to  be 
torn  from  their  bones  w^th  hooks  of  iron.^  These  fearful 
penalties  were  directed  against  those  who  practised  rites 
which  had  long  been  universal ;  and  which,  if  they  were  not 
resfarded  as  amono-  the  obli[>'ations,  were,  at  least,  amono-  the 
highest  privileges  of  paganism.  It  has  been  observed  as  a 
significant  fact,  that  in  this  reign  the  title  '  enemies  of  the 
human  race,'  which  the  old  pagan  laws  had  applied  to  the 

•  ^  Cod.  Th.^  lib.  Lx.  t,  xvi.  1.  4,  5,  G.  The  language  is  curious  and  very  pe- 
remptory— thus,  we  read  in  law  4 :  '  Nemo  haruspicem  consulat,  aut  mathema- 
ticum,  nemo  hariolum.  Augurum  et  vatimi  prava  confessio  conticescat. 
Chaldtei  ac  magi  ct  ccteri  quos  maleficos  ob  facinorura  magnitudinem  vulgus 
appellat,  nee  ad  banc  partem  aliquid  moliantur.  Sileat  omnibus  perpetuo  divi- 
nandi  curiositas :  ctenim  supplicium,  capitis  feret  gladio  ultorc  prostratus  qui- 
cunque  jussis  obsequium  denegavcrit.'  Another  law  (6)  concludes :  '  Si  con- 
victus  ad  proprium  facinus  detegentibus  repugnaverit  pernegando  sit  eculeo 
deditus,  ungulisque  sulcantibus  latera  perferat  poenas  proprio  dignas  facinore.' 
On  the  nature  of  the  punishments  that  were  employed,  compare  the  Commen- 
tary on  the  law,  in  Ritter's  edition  (Leipsic,  1738),  and  Beugnot.  torn,  i,  p.  143. 


54   ■  EATIOXALISM   Ds    ErEOPE. 

Christians,  and  wlucli  j^roved  so  effectual  in  exasperating  the 
popular  mind,  was  transferred  to  the  magicians.^   . 

The  task  of  the  Christian  emperors*  in  combating  magic 
was,  in  truth,  one  of  the  most  difficult  that  can  be  con- 
ceived ;  and  all  the  penalties  that  Roman  barbarity  could 
devise,  were  unable  to  destroy  practices  which  were  the 
natural  consequence  of  the  prevailing  credulity.  As  long  as 
men  believed  that  they  could  easily  ascertain  the  future,  it 
was  quite  certain  tliat  curiosity  would  at  length  overpower 
fear.  As  long  as  they  believed  that  a  few  simple  rites  could 
baffle  their  enemies,  and  enable  them  to  achieve  their  most 
cherished  desires,  they  would  most  unquestionably  continue 
to  practise  them.  Priests  might  fulminate  their  anathemas, 
and  emperors  multiply  their  jDcnalties ;  but  scepticism,  and 
not  terrorism,  was  the  one  corrective  for  the  evil.  This 
scepticism  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  The  populace  never 
questioned  for  a  moment  the  efficacy  of  magic.  The  pagan 
philosophers  were  all  infatuated  by  the  dreams  of  Xeo-Pla- 
tonism,  and  were  writing  long  books  on  the  mysteries  of 
Egypt,  the  hierarchy  of  spirits,  and  their  intercourse  with 
men.  The  Fathers,  it  is  true,  vehemently  denounced  magic, 
but  they  never  seem  to  have  had  the  faintest  suspicion  that  it 
was  a  delusion.  If  Christianity  had  had  nothing  to  oppose 
to  the  fascination  of  these  forbidden  rites,  it  would  have  been 
impossible  to  prevent  the  immense  majority  of  the  people 
from  reverting  to  them ;  but,  by  a  very  natural  process,  a 

^  Bcugnot,  torn.  i.  p.  148.  On  these  laws,  M,  Maury  well  says,  *De  la 
Borte  se  trouvaient  atteints  les  ministres  du  polytheisme  les  plus  en  credit,  les 
pratiques  qui  inspiraieut  i\  la  superstition  le  plus  de  confiauce.  *  *  *  Bien 
des  gens  ne  se  souciaicnt  plus  de  rendre  aux  dieux  le  culte  legal  et  consacre  ; 
mais  les  oracles,  les  augures,  les  presages,  presque  tous  les  paiens  y  recouraient 
avec  confiance,  et  leur  en  enlever  la  possibUite  c'etait  leur  depouiller  de  ce  qui 
Oiisait  leiu-  consolation  et  leur  joic'  (pp.  117,  118). 


MAGIC    AND   WITCIICEAFT.  5o 

series  of  conceptions  were  rapidly  introduced  into  theology, 
which  formed  what  may  be  termed  a  rival  system  of  magic, 
in  which  the  talismanic  virtues  of  holy  water,  and  of  Chris- 
tian ceremonies,  became  a  kind  of  counterpoise  to  the  virtue 
of  unlawful  charms.  It  is  very  remarkable,  however,  that, 
while  these  sacred  talismans  were  indefinitely  multiplied,  the 
other  great  fascination  of  magic,  the  power  of  predicting  the 
future,  was  never  claimed  by  the  Christian  clergy.  If  the 
theory  of  the  writers  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  been 
correct ;  if  the  superstitions  that  culminated  in  mediosvalism 
had  been  simply  the  result  of  the  knavery  of  the  clergy ; 
this  Avould  most  certainly  not  have  been  the  case.  The 
Christian  priests,  like  all  other  priests,  w^ould  have  pandered 
to  the  curiosity  which  Avas  universal,  and  something  analo- 
gous to  the  ancient  oracles  or  auguries  would  have  been  in- 
corporated into  the  Church.  Nothing  of  this  kind  took 
place,  because  the  change  which  j^assed  over  theology  was 
the  result,  not  of  imposture,  but  of  a  normal  development. 
No  part  of  Christianity  had  a  tendency  to  develop  into  an 
oracular  system;  and  had  such  a  system  arisen,  it  would 
have  been  the  result  of  deliberate  fraud.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  were  many  conceptions  connected  with  the  faith,  es- 
pecially concerning  the  efficacy  of  baptismal  water,  which, 
under  the  pressure  of  a  materialising  age,  passed,  by  an  easy 
and  natural,  if  not  legitimate  transition,  into  a  kind  of  fe- 
tishism, assimilating  with  the  magical  notions  that  were  so 
universally  diffused. 

St.  Jerome,  in  his  life  of  St.  Hilarion,  relates  a  miracle  of 
that  saint  Avhich  refers  to  a  period  a  few  years  after  the  death 
of  Constantius,  and  which  shows  clearly  the  position  that 
Christian  ceremonies  began  to  occnj^y  with  reference  to 
magic.     It  appears  that  a  Christian,  named  Italicus,  was  ac- 


56  EATIOXALISM   IN    EUROPE. 

customecl  to  race  horses  against  the  pagan  clnumvir  of  Gazaj 
and  that  this  latter  personage  invariably  gained  the  victory, 
by  means  of  magical  rites,  which  stimulated  his  own  horses, 
and  paralysed  those  of  his  ojDponent.  The  Christian,  in  de- 
spair, had  recourse  to  St.  Hilarion.  The  saint  appears  to 
have  been,  at  first,  somewhat  startled  at  the  application,  and 
rather  shrank  from  participating  actively  in  horse-racing ; 
but  Italicus  at  last  persuaded  him  that  the  cause  was  worthy 
of  his  intervention,  and  obtained  a  bowl  of  water  which 
Hilarion  himself  had  consecrated,  and  which  was,  therefore, 
endowed  with  a  j^eculiar  virtue.  At  length  the  day  of  the 
races  arrived.  The  chariots  were  placed  side  by  side,  and 
the  spectators  thronged  the  circus.  As  the  signal  for  the 
start  was  given,  Italicus  sj^rinkled  his  horses  with  the  holy 
water.  Immediately  the  chariot  of  the  Christian  flew  with 
a  supernatural  rapidity  to  the  goal;  while  the  horses  of  his 
adversary  faltered  and  staggered,  as  if  they  had  been  struck 
by  an  invisible  liand.  The  circus  rang  with  wild  cries  of 
wonder,  of  joy,  or  of  anger.  Some  called  for  the  death  of 
the  Christian  magician,  but  many  others  abandoned  pagan 
ism  in  consequence  of  the  miracle/ 

The  persecution  which  Constantius  directed  against  the 
magicians  was  of  course  suspended  under  Julian,  whose 
spirit  of  toleration,  when  we  consider  the  age  he  lived  in,  the 
provocations  he  endured,  and  the  intense  religious  zeal  he 
manifested,  is  one  of  tlie  most  remarkable  facts  in  history. 
He  was  passionately  devoted  to  those  forms  of  magic  which 
the    pagan    religion    admitted,  and  his  palace  was  always 

^  Vita  Sandi  Hilarlonis.  This  miracle  is  related  by  Beugnot.  The  whole 
life  of  St.  Hilarion  is  crowded  with  prodigies  that  illustrate  the  view  taken  in 
the  text.  Besides  curing  about  two  hundred  persons  in  a  little  more  than  a 
mouth,  driving  away  serpents,  &c.,  we  find  the  saint  producing  rain  with  the 
^anie  facility  as  the  later  witches. 


MAGIC   AND   WITCHCRAFT.  57 

thronged  with  magicians.  The  consultation  of  tlie  entrails, 
which  Constantius  had  forbidden,  was  renewed  at  the  coro- 
nation of  Julian  ;  and  it  was  reported  among  the  Christians, 
that  they  j)resented,  on  that  occasion,  the  form  of  a  cross, 
surmounted  by  a  crown. ^  During  the  short  reign  of  Jovian, 
the  same  tolerance  seems  to  have  continued ;  but  Valentin- 
ian  renewed  the  persecution,  and  made  another  law  against 
•  impious  prayers  and  midnight  sacrifices,'  which  were  still 
offered.''  This  law  excited  so  much  discontent  in  Greece, 
where  it  was  directly  opposed  to  the  established  religion, 
that  Yalentinian  consented  to  its  remaining  inoperative  in 
that  province ;  but,  in  other  portions  of  the  empire,  fearful 
scenes  of  suffering  and  persecution  were  everywhere  wit 
'aessed.^  In  the  East,  Yalens  was  persecuting,  with  impar- 
tial zeal,  all  who  did  not  adopt  the  tenets  of  the  Arian 
heresy.  '  The  very  name  of  philosopher,'  as  it  has  been 
said,  became  '  a  title  of  proscription ; '  and  the  most  trivial 
offences  were  visited  with  death.  One  philosopher  was  exe- 
cuted, because,  in  a  2)rivate  letter,  he  had  exhorted  his  wife 
not  to  forget  to  crown  the  portal  of  the  door.  An  old 
woman  perished,  because  she  endeavoured  to  allay  the  parox- 
ysms of  a  fever  by  magical  songs.  A  young  man,  who  im-" 
agined  that  he  could  cure  an  attack  of  diarrhoea  by  touching 
alternately  a  marble  pillar  and  his  bod}^,  wliile  he  repeated 
the  vowels,  expiated  this  not  very  alarming  superstition  by 
torture  and  by  death.*  / 

In   reviewing   tliese   persecutions,  which  Avcre   directed 
by  the  orthodox  and  by  the  Arians  against  magicians,  we 

^  St.  Gregory  Nazianzcn  (3rd  oration  against  Julian). 

2  Cod.  Th.,  lib.  ix.  t.  xvi.  1.  Y,  &c. 

=»  Maury,  pp.  118,  119. 

*  Ammianus  MarceUJnus.  lib.  xxix.  o.  1,  2. 


58  EATIOXALISM   IX   EUEOPE. 

must  carefully  guard  against  some  natural  exaggerations.  It 
would  be  very  unfair  to  attribute  directly  to  the  leaders  of 
the  Church  the  edicts  that  produced  them.  It  would  be  still 
more  unfliir  to  attribute  to  them  the  spirit  in  which  those 
edicts  were  executed.  Much  allowance  must  be  made  for  the 
personal  barbarity  of  certain  emperors  and  prefects ;  for  the 
rapacity  which  made  them  seek  for  pretexts  by  which  they 
might  confiscate  the  property  of  the  wealthy ;  and  for  the 
alarm  that  was  created  by  every  attempt  to  discover  the 
successor  to  the  throne.  We  have  positive  evidence  that  one 
or  other  of  tliese  three  causes  was  connected  with  most 
of  the  worst  outbursts  of  persecution ;  and  we  know,  from 
earlier  history,  that  persecutions  for  magic  had  taken  piace 
on  political  as  well  as  on  religious  grounds,  long  before 
Christianity  had  triumphed.  We  must  not,  again,  measure 
the  severity  of  the  persecution  by  the  j^recise  language  of  the 
laws.  If  we  looked  simply  at  the  written  enactments,  we 
should  conclude  that  a  considerable  portion  of  the  pagan 
Avorship  was,  at  an  early  period,  absolutely  and  universally 
suppressed.  In  practice,  however,  the  law  was  constantly 
broken.  A  general  laxity  of  administration  had  pervaded  all 
parts  of  the  empire,  to  an  extent  which  tlie  weakest  modern 
governments  have  seldom  exhibited.  Popular  prejudice  ran 
counter  to  many  of  the  enactments  ;  and  the  rulers  frequently 
connived  at  their  infraction.  We  find,  therefore,  that  the 
application  of  the  penalties  that  Avere  decreed  was  irregular, 
fitful,  and  uncertain.  Sometimes  they  were  enforced  with 
extreme  severity.  Sometimes  the  forbidden  rites  were  prac- 
tised without  disguise.  Very  frequently,  in  one  part  of  the 
empire  persecution  raged  fiercely,  while  in  another  part  it 
was  unknown.  When,  however,  all  these  qualifying  circum- 
stances have  bec^ii  admitted,  it  remains  cleaj-  that  a  series  of 


T^IxiGIC    AND   WITCIICExVFT.  59 

laws  were  directed  against  rites  which  were  entirely  innocu- 
ous, and  which  had  been  long  universally  practised,  as  parts 
of  the  pagan  worship,  for  the  purpose  of  sapping  the  religion 
from  which  they  sprang.  It  is  also  clear  that  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal leaders  all  believed  in  the  reality  of  magic  ;  and  that  they 
liad  vastly  increased  the  pojDular  sense  of  its  enormity,  by 
attributing  to  all  the  pagan  rites  a  magical  character.  Under 
Theodosius,  this  phase  of  the  history  of  magic  terminated. 
In  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  that  emperor  contented  him- 
self with  reiterating  the  proclamations  of  his  predecessors ; 
but  he  soon  cast  off  all  disguise,  and  prohibited,  under  the 
severest  penalties,  every  portion  of  the  pagan  worship. 

Such  was  the  policy  pursued  by  the  early  Church  towards 
the  magicians.  It  exercised  in  some  respects  a  very  impor- 
tant influence  upon  later  history.  In  the  first  place,  a  mass 
of  tradition  was  formed  which,  in  later  ages,  placed  the 
reality  of  the  crime  above  the  possibility  of  doubt.  In  the 
second  place,  the  nucleus  of  flict,  around  which  the  fables  of 
the  inquisitors  were  accumulated,  was  considerably  enlarged. 
By  a  curious,  but  very  natural  transition,  a  great  portion  of 
the  old  pagan  worship  passed  from  the  sphere  of  religion  into 
that  of  magic.  The  country  people  continued,  in  secrecy 
and  danger,  to  practise  the  rites  of  their  forefathers.  They 
were  told  that,  by  those  rites,  they  were  appealing  to  power- 
fid  and  malicious  spirits  ;  and,  after  several  generations,  they 
came  to  believe  what  they  were  told,  without,  however, 
abandoning  the  practices  that  were  condemned.  It  is  easier 
for  superstitious  men,  in  a  superstitious  age,  to  change  all  the 
notions  that  are  associated  with  their  rites,  than  to  free  their 
minds  from  their  influence.  Religions  never  truly  perish, 
except  by  a  natural  decay.  In  the  towns,  paganism  had 
arrived  at  the  last  stage  of  decrepitude,  when  Christianity 


60  EATIOXALISM   IN    EUROPE. 

arose  ;  and,  therefore,  in  the  towns,  the  victory  of  Christianity 
was  prompt  and  decisive  ;  but,  in  the  country,  paganism  still 
retained  its  vigour,  and  defied  all  the  efforts  of  priests  and 
magistrates  to  eradicate  it.  The  invasion  of  the  barbarians 
still  further  strengthened  the  pagan  element,  and  at  last  a 
kind  of  compromise  was  effected.  Paganism,  as  a  distinct 
system,  was  annihilated,  but  its  different  elements  continued 
to  exist  in  a  transfigured  form,  and  under  new  names.  Many 
portions  of  the  system  were  absorbed  by  the  new  faith. 
They  coalesced  with  the  doctrines  to  which  they  bore  most 
resemblance,  gave  those  doctrines  an  extraordinary  prom- 
inence in  the  Christian  system,  and  rendered  them  pecu- 
liarly acceptable  and  influential.  Antiquarians  have  long 
since  shown  that,  in  almost  every  part  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic faith,  the  traces  of  this  amalgamation  may  be  detected. 
Another  portion  of  paganism  became  a  kind  of  excrescence 
upon  recognised  Christianity.  It  assumed  the  form  of  in- 
numerable superstitious  rites,  which  occupied  an  equivocal 
position,  sometimes  countenanced,  and  sometimes  condemn- 
ed, hovering  upon  the  verge  of  the  faith,  associated  and 
intertwined  with  authorised  religious  practices,  occasionally 
censured  by  councils,  and  habitually  encouraged  by  the  more 
ignorant  ecclesiastics,  and  frequently  attracting  a  more  in- 
tense devotion  than  the  regular  ceremonies  with  which  they 
were  allied.^  A  third  j^ortion  continued  in  the  form  of 
magical  rites,  which  were  practised  in  defiance  of  persecu- 
tion and  anathemas,  and  which  continued,  after  the  nominal 
suppression  of  paganism,  for  nearly  eight  centuries."  These 
rites,  of  course,  only  form  07ie  element,  and  perhaps  not  ^ 

'  Many  hundreds  of  these  superstitions  arc  examined  by  Thiers.     A  groat 
number  also  are  given  in  Scott's  Discovery  of  Witchcraft. 
'  Michelct,  La  Sorcicre^  p.  26,  note.     See  also  Maury. 


MAGIC    AND    AVITCIICEAFT.  Gl 

rery  prominent  one,  in  the  systoiii  of  witchcraft ;  but  any 
analysis  which  omitted  to  notice  them  would  be  imperfect. 
All  those  grotesque  ceremonies  which  Shakspeare  portrayed 
mMachethv^QVQ  taken  from  the  old  paganism.  In  numerous 
descriptions  of  the  witches'  sabbath,  Diana  and  Herodias  are 
mentioned  together,  as  tlie  two  most  prominent  figures ; 
and  among  the  articles  of  accusation  brought  against 
witches,  Ave  find  enumerated  many  of  the  old  practices  of 
the  augurs. 

In  the  sixth  century,  the  victory  of  Christianity  over 
paganism,  considered  as  an  external  system,  and  the  corrup- 
tion of  Christianity  itself,  were  both  complete ;  and  what  are 
justly  termed  the  dark  ages  may  be  said  to  have  begun.  It 
seems,  at  first  sight,  a  somewhat  strange  and  anomalous  fact 
that,  during  the  period  Avhich  elapsed  between  the  sixth 
and  thirteenth  centuries,- when  superstitions  were  most  nu- 
merous, and  credulity  most  universal,  the  executions  for 
sorcery  should  have  been  comparatively  rare.  There  never 
had  been  a  time,  in  Avhich  the  minds  of  men  were  more 
completely  imbued  and  moulded  by  supernatural  concep- 
tions; or  in  which  the  sense  of  Satanic  power  and  Satanic 
presence  was  more  j^i'ofound  and  universal.  Many  thousands 
of  cases  of  possession,  exorcisms,  miracles,  and  apparitions 
of  the  Evil  One  were  recorded.  They  were  accepted  with- 
out the  fiiintest  doubt,  and  had  become  the  habitual  field 
upon  which  the  imagination  expatiated.  There  was  scarcely 
a  great  saint  who  had  not,  on  some  occasion,  encountered  a 
visible  manifestation  of  an  evil  spirit.  Sometimes  the  devil 
appeared  as  a  grotesque  and  hideous  animal,  sometimes  as  a 
black  man,  sometimes  as  a  beautiful  woman,  sometimes  as  a 
priest  haranguing  in  the  pulpit,  sometimes  as  an  a])gel  of 


62  RATIONALISM    IX    EUEOPE. 

liglit,  and  sometimes  in  a  &till  holier  form/  Yet,  strange  as 
it  may  now  appear,  tliese  conceptions,  though  intensely 
believed  and  intensely  realised,  did  not  create  any  great 
degree  of  terrorism.  The  very  multiplication  of  supersti- 
tions had  proved  their  corrective.  It  was  firmly  believed 
that  the  arch-fiend  was  for  ever  hovering  about  the  Chris- 
tian ;  but  it  was  also  believed  that  the  sign  of  the  cross,  or  a 
few  drops  of  lioly  water,  or  the  name  of  Mary,  could  put  him 
to  an  immediate  and  ignominious  flight.  The  lives  of, the 
saints  were  crowded  with  his  devices,  but  they  represent 
him  as  uniformly  vanquished,  humbled,  and  contemned. 
Satan  himself,  at  the  command  of  Cyprian,  had  again  and 
again  assailed  an  unarmed  and  ignorant  maiden,  who  had 
devoted  herself  to  religion.  He  had  exhausted  all  the  ^^owers 
of  sophistry  in  obscuring  the  virtue  of  virginity,  and  all  the 
resources  of  archangelic  eloquence  in  favour  of  a  young  and 
noble  j^agan  who  aspired  to  the  maiden's  hand ;  but  the 
simple  sign  of  the  cross  exposed  every  sophism,  quenched 
every  emotion  of  terrestrial  love,  and  drove  back  the  fiend, 
baffled  and  dismayed,  to  the  magician  who  had  sent  him.- 
Legions  of  devils,  drawn  up  in  ghastly  array,  surrounded  the 
church  towards  v\'hich  St.  Maur  was  moving,  and  obstructed, 
with  menacing  gestures,  the  progress  of  the  saint ;  but  a  few 
words  of  exorcism  scattered  them  in  a  moment  through  the 
air.  A  ponderous  stone  was  long  shown,  in  the  Church  of 
St.  Sabina  at  Rome,  which  the  devil,  in  a  moment  of  despair- 

^  On  the  appearances  of  the  devil  in  the  form  of  Christ,  see  the  tract  by 
Gerson  in  the  MaUeics  Male/.,  vol.  ii.  p.  77  ;  and  also  Ignatius  Lupus,  iti  Edict, 
S.  Inquisitionis  (1603),  p.  185. 

"^  See  this  story  very  amusingly  told,  on  the  authority  of  Niccphorus,  in 
Binsfeldius  de  Confessionihiis  Maleficorum  (Treves,  1591),  pp.  465-4G7.  St. 
Gregory  Xazianzen  mentions  (Oration  xviii.)  that  St.  Cyprian  had  been  a 
magician. 


MAGIC   AND    WITCHCRAFT.  63 

iiig  passion,  had  flung  at  St.  Dominick,  vainly  lioping  to 
crush  a  head  that  was  sheltered  by  the  guardian  angel.  The 
Gospel  of  St.  John  suspended  around  the  neck,  a  rosary,  a 
relic  of  Christ  or  of  a  saint,  any  one  of  the  thousand  talis- 
mans that  were  distributed  among  the  faithful,  sufiiced  to 
"baffle  the  utmost  efforts  of  diabolical  malice.  The  conse- 
<pience  of  this  teaching  was  a  condition  of  thought,  which  is 
so  far  removed  from  that  which  exists  in  the  present  day, 
that  it  is  only  by  a  strong  exertion  of  the  imagination  that 
we  can  conceive  it.  What  may  be  called  the  intellectual 
basis  of  witchcraft,  existed  to  the  fullest  extent.  All  those 
conceptions  of  diabolical  presence,  all  that  predisposition 
towards  the  miraculous,  which  acted  so  fearfully  upon  the 
imaginations  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  existed; 
but  the  implicit  faith,  the  boundless  and  triumphant  credulity 
with  which  the  virtue  of  ecclesiastical  rites  was  accepted, 
rendered  them  comparatively  innocuous.  If  men  had  been  a 
little  less  superstitious,  the  effects  of  their  superstition  would 
have  been  much  more  terrible.  It  was  firmly  believed  that 
any  one  who  deviated  from  the  strict  line  of  orthodoxy  must 
soon  succumb  beneath  the  power  of  Satan  ;  but  as  there  was 
no  spirit  of  rebellion  or  of  doubt,  this  persuasion  did  not  pro- 
duce any  extraordinary  terrorism. 

Amid  all  this  strange  teaching,  there  ran,  however,  one 
vein  of  a  darker  character.  The  more  terrible  phenomena  of 
nature  were  entirely  unmoved  by  exorcisms  and  sprinklings, 
and  they  were  invariably  attributed  to  supernatural  interposi- 
tion. In  every  nation  it  has  been  believed,  at  an  early  period, 
that  pestilences,  famines,  comets,  rainbows,  eclipses,  and  other 
rare  and  startling  phenomena,  were  effected,  not  by  the  ordi- 
nary sequence  of  natural  laws,  but  by  the  direct  intervention 
of  spirits.     In  this  manner,  tlie  predisposition  towards  the 


64  RATIONALISM   IX    EUEOPE. 

miraculous,  which  is  the  characteristic  of  all  semi-civilised 
nations,  has  been  perpetuated,  and  the  clergy  have  also 
frequently  identified  these  phenomena  with  acts  of  rebellion 
against  themselves.  The  old  Catholic  priests  were  consum- 
mate masters  of  these  arts,  and  every  rare  natural  event  was, 
in  the  middle  ages,  an  occasion  for  the  most  intense  terrorism. 
Thus,  in  the  eighth  century,  a  fearful  famine  afflicted  France, 
and  was  generally  represented  as  a  consequence  of  the  repug- 
nance which  the  French  people  manifested  to  the  payment 
of  tithes.^  In  the  ninth  century,  a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun 
struck  terror  through  Euroj^e,  and  is  said  to  have  been  one 
of  the  causes  of  the  death  of  a  French  king.^  In  the  tenth 
century  a  similar  phenomenon  juit  to  flight  an  entire  army.^ 
More  than  once,  the  apparition  of  a  comet  filled  Europe  with 
an  almost  maddening  terror;  and,  whenever  a  noted  person 
was  struck  down  by  sudden  illness,  the  death  was  attributed 
to  sorcery. 

The  natural  result,  I  think,  of  such  modes  of  thought 
would  be,  that  the  notion  of  sorcery  should  be  very  common, 
but  that  the  fear  of  it  should  not  pass  into  an  absolute  mania. 
Credulity  was  habitual  and  universal,  but  religious  terrorism 
was  fitful  and  transient.  "We  need  not,  therefore,  be  sur- 
prised that  sorcery,  though  very  familiar  to  the  minds  of 
men,  did  not,  at  the  period  I  am  referring  to,  occupy  that 
prominent  position  wliich  it  afterwards  assumed.  The  idea  of 
a  formal  compact  with  the  devil  had  not  yet  been  formed ;  but 
most  of  the  crimes  of  witchcraft  were  recognised,  anathema- 
tised, and  punished.  Thus,  towards  the  end  of  the  sixth 
century,  a  son  of  Fredegonda  died  after  a  short  illness ;  and 

^  Garinct,  p.  38.  =  Ibid.  p.  42. 

^  Buckle's  Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  345  (note),  where  fin  immense  amount  of  evidence 
on  the  subject  is  given. 


MAGIC   AND    WITCIICEAFT.  65 

numbers  of  women  were  put  to  the  most  prolonged  and 
excruciating  torments,  and  at  last  burnt  or  broken  on  the 
wheel,  for  having  caused,  by  incantations,  tlie  death  of  the 
prince/  In  Germany,  the  Codex  de  Matliematicis  et  Male- 
ficiis '  long  continued  in  force,  as  did  the  old  Salic  law  on 
the  same  subject  in  France.  Charlemagne  enacted  new  and 
very  stringent  laws,  condemning  sorcerers  to  death,  aifd 
great  numbers  seem  to  have  perished  in  his  reign. ^  Hail 
and  thunderstorms  were  almost  universally  attributed  to 
their  devices,  though  one  great  ecclesiastic  of  the  ninth 
century — Agobard,  archbishop  of  Lyons — had  the  rare  merit 
of  opposing  the  po]3ular  belief.* 

There  existed,  too,  all  through  the  middle  ages,  and  even 
as  late  as  the  seventeenth  century,  the  sect  of  the  Cabalists, 
who  were  especially  persecuted  as  magicians.  It  is  not  easy 
to  obtain  any  very  clear  notion  of  their  mystic  doctrines, 
which  long  exercised  an  extraordinary  fascination  over  many 
minds,  and  which  captivated  the  powerful  and  daring  intel- 
lects of  Cardan,  Agrippa,  and  Paracelsus.  They  seem  to 
have  comprised  many  traditions  that  had  been  long  current 
among  the  Jews,  mixed  with  much  of  the  old  Platonic 
doctrine  of  demons,  and  with  a  large  measure  of  pure  natu- 
ralism. With  a  degree  of  credulity,  which,  in  our  age, 
would  be  deemed  barely  compatible  with  sanity,  but  which 
was  then  j)erfectly  natural,  was  combined  some  singularly 

'  Garinet,  pp.  14,  15. 

^  This  was  the  title  of  the  Roman  code  I  have  reviewed.  Mathematic"js 
v.'as  the  name  given  to  astrologers :  as  a  law  of  Diocletian  put  it,  '  Artem  geo- 
metriaa  disci  atque  exerceri  publice  interest.  Ars  autem  mathematica  damua- 
bilis  est  et  iuterdicta  omnino.' 

^  Garinet,  p.  39. 

*  Garinet,  p.  45.  He  also  saved  the  lives  of  some  Cabalists.  He  was  un- 
fortunately one  of  the  chief  persecutors  of  the  Jews  in  his  time.  Bcdarride, 
Hht.  des  Juifs,  pp.  83,  87. 

TOL.  I. — 5 


(jQ  KATIOXALISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

bold  scepticism ;  and,  probably,  a  greater  amount  was  veiled 
under  the  form  of  allegories  than  was  actually  avowed.  The 
Cabalists  believed  in  tlie  existence  of  spirits  of  nature,  em- 
bodiments or  representatives  of  the  four  elements,  sylphs, 
salamanders,  gnomes,  and  ondines,  beings  of  far  more  than 
human  excellence,  but  mortal,  and  not  untinctured  by  human 
frailty.  To  rise  to  intercourse  with  these  elemental  spirits  of 
nature  was  the  highest  aim  of  the  philosopher.  He  who 
would  do  so,  must  sever  himself  from  the  common  course  of 
life.  He  must  purify  his  soul  by  fasting  and  celibacy,  by 
patient  and  unwearied  study,  by  deep  communion  with 
nature  and  with  nature's  laws.  He  must  learn,  above  all,  to 
look  down  with  contempt  upon  the  angry  quarrels  of  oppos- 
ing creeds ;  to  see  in  each  religion  an  aspect  of  a  continuous 
law,  a  new  phase  and  manifestation  of  the  action  of  the 
spirits  of  nature  upon  mankind. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  detect  the  conception  which  underlies 
this  teaching.  As,  however,  no  religious  doctrine  can  resist 
the  conditions  of  the  age,  these  simple  notions  were  soon 
encrusted  and  defaced  by  so  many  of  those  grotesque  and 
material  details,  which  invariably  resulted  from  mediaeval 
habits  of  thought,  that  it  is  only  by  a  careful  examination 
that  their  outlines  can  be  traced.  It  was  believed  that  it 
was  possible  for  philosophers  to  obtain  these  spirits  in  literal 
marriage ;  and  that  such  a  union  was  the  most  passionate 
desire  of  the  spirit-world.  It  was  not  only  highly  gratifying 
for  both  parties  in  this  Avorld,  but  greatly  improved  their 
prospects  for  the  next.  The  sylph,  though  she  lived  for 
many  centuries,  was  mortal,  and  had  in  herself  no  hope  of  a 
future  life;  but  her  human  husband  imjjarted  to  her  his  own 
immortality,  unless  he  was  one  of  the  reprobate,  in  which 
?ase  he  was  saved  from  the  pangs  of  hell  by  participating  in 


MAGIC    AXD    WITCHCKAFT.  0  4 

the  mortality  of  his  bride.  This  general  conception  Avas 
elaborated  in  great  detail,  and  was  applied  to  the  history  of 
the  Fall,  and  to  the  mythology  of  paganism,  on  both  of 
which  subjects  the  orthodox  tenets  were  indignantly  spurned. 
Scarcely  any  one  seems  to  have  doubted  the  reality  of  these 
spirits,  or  that  they  were  accustomed  to  reveal  themselves  to 
mankind ;  and  the  coruscations  of  Aurora  are  said  to  have 
been  attributed  to  the  flashings  of  their  wings. ^  The  only 
question  was,  concerning  their  nature.  According  to  the 
Cabalists,  they  were  pure  and  virtuous.  According  to  the 
orthodox,  they  were  the  incubi  who  were  spoken  of  by  St. 
Augustine ;  and  all  who  had  commerce  with  them  were  de- 
servedly burnt.  ^  -^ 

The  history  of  the  Cabalists  furnishes,  I  think,  a  striking 
instance  of  the  aberrations  of  a  spirit  of  free-thinking  in  an 
age  which  was  not  yet  ripe  for  its  reception.  When  the  very 
opponents  of  the  Church  w^ere  so  completely  carried  away 
by  the  tide,  and  were  engrossed  with  a  mythological  system 
as  absurd  as  the  wildest  legends  of  the  hagiology,  it  is  not 
at  all  surprising  that  the  philosophers  who  arose  in  the  ranks 
of  orthodoxy  should  have  been  extremely  credulous,  and 
that  their  conceptions  should  have  been  characterised  by  the 

^  Gariiiet,  p.  35.  This,  however,  is  doubtful.  Ilcrder  mentions  that  the 
Greenlandcrs  believe  the  Aurora  to  be  formed  by  spirits  dancing  and  playing 
ball 

'^  On  the  Hebrew  Cabala,  see  the  learned  work  of  M.  Franck,  and  on  the 
notions  in  the  middle  ages,  and  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  Le 
Comte  de  GabaUs.  Plancey,  Did.  Infernale.,  art.  Cahale.  All  the  heathen 
gods  were  supposed  to  be  sylphs  or  other  aerial  spirits.  Vesta  was  the  wife 
of  Xoah — Zoroaster,  her  son,  otherwise  called  Japhet.  The  sin  of  Adam  was 
deserting  the  sylph  for  his  wife,  and  the  story  of  the  apple  was  allegorical,  &;c. 
This  last  notion  appears  to  have  been  a  relic  of  Manichosism,  and  was  very 
common  among  the  heretics  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  (flatter,  Hist, 
(hi  Gnosticisme,  torn.  iii.  pp.  259,  260).  Paracelsus  was  one  of  the  princifjal 
asserters  of  the  existence  of  the  sylphs,  &c. 


68  RATIOXALISM   IN    EUROPE. 

coarsest  materialism.  Among  the  very  few  men  who,  in 
some  slight  degree,  cultivated  profane  literature  during  the 
period  I  am  referring  to,  a  j^rorainent  place  must  be  assigned 
to  Michael  Psellus.  This  voluminous  author,  though  he  is 
now,  I  imagine,  very  little  read,  still  retains  a  certain  po- 
sition in  literary  history,  as  almost  the  only  Byzantine  writer 
of  reputation  who  appeared  for  some  centuries.  Towards 
the  close  of  tlie  eleventh  century  he  wrote  his  dialogue  on 
*  The  Operation  of  Demons  ; '  which  is,  in  a  great  measure, 
an  exposition  of  the  old  Xeo-Platonic  doctrine  of  the  hie- 
rarchy of  spirits,  but  which  also  throws  considerable  light  on 
the  modes  of  thought  prevailing  in  his  time.  He  assures  us 
that  the  world  was  full  of  demons,  who  were  very  frequently 
appearing  among  his  countrymen,  and  who  manifested  their 
presence  in  many  different  ways.  He  had  himself  never  seen 
one,  but  he  was  well  acquainted  with  persons  who  had  act- 
ual intercourse  with  them.  His  principal  authority  was  a 
Grecian,  named  Marcus,  who  had  at  one  time  disbelieved  in 
apparitions  ;  but  who,  having  adopted  a  perfectly  solitary 
life,  had  been  surrounded  by  spirits  whose  habits  and  aj)- 
pearance  he  most  minutely  described.  Having  thus  amassed 
considerable  information  on  the  subject,  Psellus  proceeded 
to  digest  it  into  a  philosophical  system,  connecting  it  with 
the  teachings  of  the  past,  and  unfolding  the  laws  and  opera- 
tions of  the  spirit  world.  He  lays  it  down  as  a  fundamental 
position  that  all  demons  have  bodies.  This,  he  says,  is  the 
necessary  inference  from  the  orthodox  doctrine  that  they  en- 
dure the  torment  of  fire.'  Their  bodies,  however,  are  not, 
like  those  of  men  and  animals,  cast  into  an  unchangeable 
mould.     They  are  rather  like  the  clouds,  refined  and  subtle 

^  This  was  a  very  old  notion.     St.  Basil  seems  to  have  maintained  it  very 
fitrcngly.     Cudworth's  Int.  System,  vol.  ii.  p.  048. 


MAGIC   AXD   WITCHCRAFT.  69 

matter,  capable  of  assuming  any  form,  and  penetrating  into 
any  orifice.  The  horrible  tortm-es  they  endm-e  in  their  place 
#f  punishment  have  rendered  them  extremely  sensitive  to 
suffering ;  and  they  continually  seek  a  temperate  and  some- 
what moist  warmth  in  order  to  allay  their  pangs.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  they  so  frequently  enter  into  men  and  ani- 
mals. Possession  appears  to  have  been  quite  frequent,  and 
madness  was  generally  regarded  as  one  of  its  results.  Psel- 
lus,  however,  mentions  that  some  physicians  formed  an  ex- 
ception to  the  prevailing  opinions,  attributing  to  physical 
what  was  generally  attributed  to  spiritual  causes,  an  aberra- 
tion which  he  could  only  account  for  by  the  materialism 
which  was  so  general  in  their  profession.  He  mentions  inci- 
dentally the  exploits  of  incubi  as  not  unknown,  and  enters 
into  a  long  disquisition  about  a  devil  who  was  said  to  be  ac- 
quainted with  Armenian. 

We  find  then  that,  all  through  the  middle  ages,  most  of 
the  crimes  that  were  afterwards  collected  by  the  inquisitors 
in  the  treatises  on  witchcraft  Avere  known  ;  and  that  many 
of  them  were  not  unfrequently  punislied.  At  the  same  time 
the  executions,  during  six  centuries,  were  probably  not  as 
numerous  as  those  which  often  took  place  during  a  single 
decade  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  In  the 
twelfth  century,  however,  the  subject  passed  into  an  entirely 
new  phase.  The  conception  of  a  witch,  as  we  now  conceive 
it — that  is  to  say,  of  a  woman  who  had  entered  into  a  delib- 
erate compact  with  Satan,  who  was  endowed  with  the  power 
of  vrorking  miracles  whenever  she  pleased,  and  who  was  con- 
tinually transported  through  the  air  to  the  Sabbath,  where 
elie  paid  her  homage  to  the  Evil  One — first  appeared.^     The 

^  Maury,  p.  185. 


70  EATIOXALISM    IX    ETEOPE. 

panic  created  by  the  belief  advanced  at  first  slowly,  but 
after  a  time  with  a  fearfully  accelerated  raj^idity.  Thou- 
sands of  victims  were  sometimes  burnt  alive  in  a  few  years*- 
Every  country  in  Europe  was  stricken  with  the  wildest 
panic.  Hundreds  of  the  ablest  judges  were  selected  for  the 
extirpation  of  the  crime.  A  vast  literature  was  created  on 
the  subject,  and  it  was  not  until  a  considerable  portion  of 
the  eighteenth  century  had  passed  away,  that  the  executions 
finally  ceased.^ 

I  shall  now  endeavour  to  trace  the  general  causes  which 
produced  this  outburst  of  superstition.  We  shall  find,  I 
think,  that  in  this  as  in  its  earlier  phases,  sorcery  was  closely 
connected  with  the  prevailing  modes  of  thought  on  religious 
subjects  ;  and  that  its  history  is  one  of  the  most  faithful  in- 
dications of  the  laws  of  religious  belief  in  their  relation  to 
the  progress  of  civilisation. 

The  more  carefully  the  history  of  the  centuries  prior  to 
the  Reformation  is  studied,  the  more  evident  it  becomes  that 
the  twelfth  century  forms  the  great  turning  point  of  the 
Eurojoean  intellect.  Owing  to  many  complicated  causes, 
which  it  would  be  tedious  and  difficult  to  trace,  a  general 
revival  of  Latin  literature  had  then  taken  place,  which  pro- 
foundly modified  the  intellectual  condition  of  Europe,  and 
which,  therefore,  implied  and  necessitated  a  modification  of 
the  popular  belief  For  the  first  time  for  many  centuries,  we 
find  a  feeble  spirit  of  doubt  combating  the  spirit  of  credu- 
lity ;  a  curiosity  for  purely  secular  knowledge  replacing,  in 
some  small  degree,  the  j^assion  for  theology;  and,  as  a  con- 
sequence of  these  things,  a  diminution  of  the  contemptuous 

'  The  last  judicial  excc-ulion  in  Europe  was,  I  believe,  iu  Switzerland,  in 
1782  (Michelet's  Sorcilre,  p,  415) ;  the  last  law  on  the  subject,  the  Irish  Statute, 
which  was  not  repealed  till  1821. 


MAGIC   AXD   WITCHCRAFT.  -Yl 

t 

hatred  with  wliicli  all  who  were  external  to  Christianity  had 
been  regarded.  In  every  department  of  thought  and  of 
knowledge,  there  was  manifested  a  vague  disquietude,  a  spirit 
of  restless  and  feverish  anxiety,  that  contrasted  strangely 
with  the  preceding  torpor.  Tlie  long  slumber  of  untroubled 
orthodoxy  was  broken  by  many  heresies,  which,  though. 
often  repressed,  seemed  in  each  succeeding  century  to  ac- 
quire new  force  and  consistency.  Manichoeism,  whicli  had 
for  some  time  been  smouldering  in  the  Church,  burst  into  a 
fierce  llame  among  the  Albigenses,  and  was  only  quenched 
by  that  fearful  massacre  in  which  tens  of  thousands  were 
murdered  at  the  instigation  of  the  priests.  Then  it  was  that 
the  standard  of  an  impartial  philosophy  was  first  planted  by 
Abelard  in  Europe,  and  the  minds  of  the  learned  distracted 
by  subtle  and  perplexing  doubts  concerning  the  leading  doc- 
trines of  the  faith.  Then,  too,  the  teachings  of  a  stern  and 
uncompromising  infidelity  flashed  forth  from  Seville  and 
from  Cordova ;  and  the  form  of  Averroes  began  to  assume 
those  gigantic  proportions,  which,  at  a  later  period,  over- 
shadovred  the  whole  intellect  of  Europe,  and  almost  per- 
suaded some  of  the  ablest  men  that  the  reign  of  Antichrist 
had  begun. ^  At  the  same  time,  the  passion  for  astrology, 
and  for  the  fatalism  it  implied,  revived  with  the  revival  of 

^  For  the  history  of  this  very  remarkable  moveinent,  see  the  able  essay  of 
Ren  an  on  Averroes.  Among  the  Mahometans  the  panic  was  so  great,  that 
the  theologians  pronomieed  logic  and  philosophy  to  be  the  two  great  enemies 
of  their  profession,  and  ordered  all  books  on  those  dangerous  subjects  to  be 
burnt.  Among  the  Christians,  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  devoted  his  genius  to  the 
controversy ;  and,  for  two  or  three  centuries,  most  of  the  great  w'orks  in 
Christendom  bore  some  marks  of  Averroes.  M.  Renan  has  collected  some 
curious  evidence  from  the  Italian  painters  of  the  fourteenth  century,  of  tb.e 
prominence  Averroes  had  assumed  in  the  popular  mind.  The  three  prin- 
cipal figures  in  Orcagna's  picture  of  IIcll,  in  the  Campo  Scnto  at  Pisa,  are 
Mahomet,  Antichrist,  and  Averroes. 


72  EATI0NALTS5I    IN    EUEOPE. 

pagan  learning,  and  penetrated  into  the  halls  of  nobles  and 
the  palaces  of  kings.     Every  doubt,  every  impulse  of  rebel- 
lion against  ecclesiastical  authority,  above  all,  every  hereti- 
\  cal  opinion,  was  regarded  as  the  direct  instigation  of  Satan, 
j  and  their  increase  as  the  measure  of  his  triumph.     Yet  these 
!  things  were  now  gathering  darkly  all  around.      Europe  was 
'  beo-inning  to  enter  into  that  inexpressibly  painful  period  in 
which  men  have  learned  to  doubt,  but  have  not  yet  learned 
to  regard  doubt  as  innocent ;  in  which  the  new  mental  activ- 
ity produces  a  variety  of  opinions,  Avhile  the  old  credulity 
persuades  them  that  all  but  one  class  of  opinions  are  the  sug- 
gestions of  the  devil.     The  spirit  of  rationalism  was  yet  un- 
born ;  or  if  some  faint  traces  of  it  may  be  discovered  in  the 
teachings  of  Abelard,  it  was  at  least  far  too  weak  to  allay 
the  panic.     There  was  no  independent  enquiry;    no  confi- 
dence in  an  honest  research ;  no  disposition  to  rise  above 
dogmatic  systems  or  traditional  teaching;   no  capacity  for 
Y  enduring  the   sufferings  of  a   suspended  judgment.      The 
1  Church  had  cursed  the  human  intellect  by  cursing  the  doubts 
\  that  are  the  necessary  consequence  of  its  exercise.     She  had 
j  cursed  even  the  moral  faculty  by  asserting  the  guilt  of  hon- 
j  est  error. 

It  is  easy  to  perceive  that,  in  such  a  state  of  thought,  the 
conception  of  Satanic  presence  must  have  assumed  a  peculiar 
prominence,  and  have  created  a  peculiar  terror.  Multitudes 
were  distracted  by  doubts,  which  they  sought  in  vain  to  re- 
press, and  which  they  firmly  believed  to  be  the  suggestions 
of  the  devil.  Their  horror  of  pagans  and  Mahometans 
diminished  more  and  more,  as  they  acquired  a  relish  for  the 
philosophy  of  which  the  first,  or  the  physical  sciences  of 
which  the  second  were  the  repositories.  Every  step  in 
knowledge  increased  their  repugnance  to  the  coarse  material- 


MAGIC   AND   WITCHCKAFT.  Y3 

ism  wliicli  -was  prevalent,  and  every  generation  rendered  tlie 
general  intellectual  tendencies  more  manifestly  hostile  to  the 
Cliuich.  On  tlic  other  hand,  that  Church  presented  an 
aspect  of  the  sternest  inflexibility.  Rebellion  and  doubt 
■were,  in  her  eyes,  the  greatest  of  all  crimes ;  and  her  doc- 
trine of  evil  spirits  and  of  the  future  world  supplied  her 
with  engines  of  terrorism  which  she  was  prepared  to  employ 
to  the  uttermost.  Accordingly  we  find  that,  about  the' 
twelfth  century,  the  popular  teaching  began  to  assume  a 
sterner  and  more  solemn  cast,  and  the  devotions  of  the 
people  to  be  more  deeply  tinctured  by  fanaticism.  The  old 
confidence  which  had  almost  toyed  Avith  Satan,  and  in  the 
very  exuberance  of  an  unfaltering  fiiith  had  mocked  at  his 
devices,  was  exchanged  for  a  harsh  and  gloomy  asceticism. 
The  aspect  of  Satan  became  more  formidable,  and  the  aspect 
of  Christ  became  less  engaging.  Till  the  close  of  the  tenth 
century,  the  central  figure  of  Christian  art  had  been  usually 
represented  as  a  very  young  man,  with  an  expression  of  un- 
troubled gentleness  and  calm  resting  on  his  countenance,  and 
engaged  in  miracles  of  mercy.  The  parable  of  the  Good 
Shepherd,  which  adorns  almost  every  chapel  in  the  Cata- 
combs, was  still  the  favourite  subject  of  the  painter ;  and 
the  sterner  representations  of  Christianity  were  compara- 
tively rare.  In  the  eleventh  century,  all  this  began  to 
change.  The  Good  Shepherd  entirely  disappeared,  the 
miracles  of  mercy  became  less  frequent,  and  were  replaced 
by  the  details  of  the  Passion  and  the  terrors  of  the  Last 
Judgment.  The  countenance  of  Christ  became  sterner,  old- 
er, and  more  mournful.  About  the  twelfth  century,  this 
change  became  almost  universal.  From  this  period,  writes 
one  of  the  most  learned  of  modern  arclia}ologists,  '  Clnist 
appears  more  and  more  melancholy,  and  often  truly  terrible. 


74  EATIOXxVLISM   m    EUROPE. 

It  is,  indeed,  the  rex  tremendse  niajestatis  of  our  Dies  Irse. 
It  is  almost  the  God  of  the  Jews  making  fear  the  beginning 
of  Avisdom.' '  In  the  same  acfe,  we  find  the  scourojino-s  and 
the  'minutio  monachi ' — the  practice  of  constant  bleedings — 
rising  into  general  use  in  the  monasteries  ;  ^  and,  soon  after, 
the  Flagellants  arose,  whose  stern  discij)line  and  passionate 
laments  over  prevailing  iniquity  directed  the  thoughts  of 
multitudes  to  subjects  that  were  well  calculated  to  inflame 
their  imaginations.  Almost  at  the  same  time,  religious  per- 
secution, which  had  been  for  many  centuries  almost  unknown, 
amid  the  calm  of  ortliodoxy,  was  revived  and  stimulated. 
In  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Innocent  III. 
instituted  the  Inquisition,  and  issued  the  first  appeal  to 
princes  to  employ  their  power  for  the  suppression  of  heresy ; 
and,  in  the  course  of  the  following  century,  the  new  tribunal 
was  introduced ;  or,  at  least,  executions  for  heresy  had  taken 
place  in  several  great  countries  in  Europe. 

The  terrorism  which  was  thus  created  by  the  conflict 
between  an  immutable  Church  and  an  age  in  which  there 
was  some  slight  progress,  and  a  real,  though  faint  spirit  of 
rebellion,  gradually  filtered  down  to  those  who  were  for  too 
ignorant  to  become  heretics.  The  priest  in  the  pulpit  or  in 
the   confessional;    the   monk    in    his   intercourse   with   the 

^  Didron,  Iconograpliie  Chretienne,  Histoire  de  Dlcu  (Paris,  1843),  p.  262. 
See,  however,  for  the  whole  history  of  this  very  remarkable  transition,  pp. 
255-273.  To  this  I  raay  add,  that  about  the  thirteenth  century,  the  represen- 
tations of  Satan  underwent  a  corresponding  change,  and  became  both  more 
terrible  and  more  grotesque  (Maury,  Legcndes  Fieuses,  p.  136).  The  more  the 
subject  is  examined,  the  more  evident  it  becomes  that,  before  the  invention  of 
printing,  painting  was  the  most  faithful  mirror  of  the  popular  mind  ;  and  that 
there  was  scarcely  an  intellectual  movement  that  it  did  not  reflect.  On  the 
general  terrorism  of  this  period,  see  Michelct,  Histoire  de  France,  torn.  vii.  pp. 
140,  141. 

^  Madden,  vol.  i.  pp.  359-395;  Cabauis,  Faj ports  Fhi/siqucs  ct  Jlorals, 
torn,  ii.  pp.  11-10. 


MAGIC    Al^D   ^VITCHCHAFT.  7o 

peasant ;  the  Flagellant,  by  Lis  mournful  Iiymns,  and  by  the 
spectacle  of  his  macerations;  above  all,  the  inquisitor,  by  liis 
judgments,  communicated  to  the  lower  classes  a  sense  of 
Satanic  presence  and  triumph,  which  they  naturally  aj^plied 
to  the  order  of  ideas  with  which  they  were  most  conversant. 
In  an  age  which  was  still  grosslv  ignorant  and  credulous,  the 
popular  faith  was  necessarily  full  of  grotesque  superstitions, 
Avliich  fi\ithfully  reflected  the  general  tone  and  colouring  of 
religious  teaching,  though  they  often  went  far  beyond  its 
limits.  These  superstitions  had  once  consisted,  for  the  most 
part,  in  wild  legends  of  fairies,  mermaids,  giants,  and  drag- 
ons ;  of  miracles  of  saints,  conflicts  in  which  the  devil  took  a 
prominent  part,  but  was  invariably  defeated,  or  illustrations 
of  the  boundless  efficacy  of  some  charm  or  relic.  About  the 
twelfth  century  they  began  to  assume  a  darker  hue,  and  the 
imaginations  of  the  people  revelled  in  the  details  of  the 
witches'  Sabbath,  and  in  the  awful  power  of  the  ministers  of 
Satan.  The  inquisitors  traversed  Europe,  proclaiming  that 
the  devil  was  operating  actively  on  all  sides ;  and  among 
their  very  first  victims  were  persons  who  were  accused  of 
sorcery,  and  who  were,  of  course,  condemned.^  Such  con- 
demnations could  not  make  the  belief  in  the  reality  of  the 
crime  more  unhesitating  than  it  had  been,  but  they  had  a 
direct  tendency  to  multiply  the  accusations.  The  imagina- 
tions of  the  people  were  riveted  uj^on  the  subject.  A  con- 
tagious terror  was  engendered.  Some,  whose  minds  were 
thoroughly  diseased,  persuaded  themselves  that  they  were  in 
communion  Avith  Satan ;  all  had  an  increasing  predisposition 
to  see  Satanic  agency  around  them. 

To  these  things  should  be  added  a  long  scries  of  social 
and  political  events,  into  which  it  is  needless  to  enter,  for 

^  Gariuet,  p.  To. 


76  EATIOXALISM   IN    EUEOPE. 

tliey  have  very  lately  been  painted  with  matchless  viyidness 
by  one  of  the  greatest  of  living  writers/  A  sense  of  inse- 
curity and  wretchedness,  often  rising  to  absolute  despair,  had 
been  diffused  among  the  people,  and  had  engendered  the 
dark  imaginations,  and  the  wild  and  rebellious  passions, 
which,  in  a  superstitious  age,  are  their  necessary  concomi- 
tants. It  has  always  been  observed  by  the  inquisitors  that  a 
large  proportion  of  those  who  werv3  condemned  to  the  flames 
were  women,  whose  lives  had  been  clouded  by  some  great 
sorrow;  and  that  music,  which  soothes  the  passions,  and 
allays  the  bitterness  of  regret,  had  an  extraordinary  power 
over  the  possessed.^ 

Under  the  influences  which  I  have  attempted  to  trace, 
the  notion  of  witchcraft  was  reduced  to  a  more  definite  form , 
and  acquired  an  increasing  prominence  in  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries.  Most  of  the  causes  that  produced  it 
advanced  by  their  very  nature  with  an  accelerating  force, 
and  the  popular  imagination  became  more  and  more  fasci- 
nated by  the  subject.  In  the  fourteenth  century,  an  event 
occurred  which  was  well  calculated  to  give  a  fearful  impulse 
to  the  terrorism;  and  which  may,  indeed,  be  justly  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  appalling  in  the  history  of  humanity.  I 
allude,  of  course,  to  the  black  death.  A  great  German  phy- 
sician has  lately  investigated,  with  much  skill  and  learning, 
the  history  of  that  time ;  and  he  has  recorded  his  opinion 
that,  putting  aside  all  exaggerated  accounts,  the  number  of 
those  who  died  of  the  jDestilence  during  the  six  years  of  its 
continuance,  may  be  estimated,  by  a  very  moderate  computa- 
tion, at  twenty-five  millions,  or  a  fourth  part  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Europe.'     Many  great  towns  lost  fiir  more  than  half 

^  Michelet,  La  Sorcicre.  -  Binsfeldius,  p.  155. 

^  Ilcckcr's  Fpideimcs  ?/  the  MhhUc  Ages,  p.  20.  Boccaccio  witucsscd  and 
described  tliis  pestilence. 


MAGIC   AKD   WITCIICEAFT.  i  i 

their  jDopulation ;   many   country  districts  were  almost  de- 
populated. 

It  Avould  be  scarcely  possible  to  conceive  an  event  fitted 
to  act  Avith  a  more  terrific  fierce  upon  the  imaginations  of 
men.  Even  in  our  own  day.  we  know  how  great  a  degree 
of  religious  terror  is  inspired  by  a  pestilence  ;  but,  in  an  age 
when  the  supernatural  character  of  disease  was  universally 
believed,  an  affliction  of  such  unexampled  magnitude  pro- 
duced a  consternation  which  almost  amounted  to  madness. 
One  of  its  first  efiects  was  an  enormous  increase  of  the 
Avealth  of  the  clergy  by  the  legacies  of  the  terror-stricken 
victims.  The  sect  of  the  Flagellants,  which  had  been  for  a 
century  unknown,  reappeared  in  tenfold  numbers,  and  almost 
every  part  of  Europe  resounded  with  their  hymns.  Then, 
too,  arose  the  dancing  mania  of  Flanders  and  Germany,  when 
thousands  assembled  with  strange  cries  and  gestures,  overaw- 
ing by  their  multitudes  all  authority,  and  proclaiming,  amid 
their  wild  dances  and  with  shrieks  of  terror,  the  power  and 
the  triumph  of  Satan.'  It  has  been  observed  that  this  form 
of  madness  raged  with  an  especial  violence  in  the  dioceses  of 
Cologne  and  Treves,  in  which  witchcraft  was  afterwards  most 
prevalent.'^  In  Switzerland  and  in  some  parts  of  Germany 
the  plague  was  ascribed  to  the  poison  of  the  Jews;  and 
though  the  Pope  made  a  noble  effort  to  dispel  the  illusion, 
immense  numbers  of  that  unhappy  race  were  put  to  death. 
Some  thousands  are  said  to  have  perished  in  Mayence  alone. 
More  generally,  it  was  regarded  as  a  divine  chastisement,  or 
!is  an  evidence  of  Satanic  power;  and  the  most  grotesque 

^  Ilecker,  p.  82.     The  dancers  often  imagined  themselves  to  be  immersed    \/ 
in  a  stream  of  blood.     They  were  habitually  exorcised. 

^  There  is  still  an  annual  festival  near  Treves  in  commemoration  of  the 
epidemic.     Madden,  vol.  i.  p.  420. 


78  EATIOXALISM   IN"   EUEOPE. 

explanations  were  hazarded.  Boots  with  pointed  toes  had 
been  hxtely  introdnced,  and  were  supposed  by  many  to  have 
been  peculiarly  offensive  to  the  Almighty.^  What,  however, 
we  have  especially  to  observe  is,  that  the  trials  for  witchcraft 
multiplied  with  a  fearful  rapidity.^ 

In  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  they  may  be  said 
to  have  reached  their  climax.  The  aspect  which  Europe 
then  presented  was  that  of  universal  anarchy  and  universal 
terrorism.  The  intellectual  influences  which  had  been  long 
corroding  the  pillars  of  the  Church  had  done  their  work, 
and  a  fearful  moral  retrogression,  aggravated  by  the  newly- 
acquired  ecclesiastical  wealth,  accompanied  the  intellectual 
advance.  Yet,  over  all  this  chaos,  there  was  one  great  con- 
ception dominating  unchanged.  It  was  the  sense  of  sin  and 
Satan ;  of  the  absolute  necessity  of  a  correct  dogmatic  sys- 
tem to  save  men  from  the  agonies  of  hell.  The  Church, 
which  had  long  been  all  in  all  to  Christendom,  was  heaving 
in  what  seemed  the  last  throes  of  dissolution.  The  bounda- 
ries of  religious  thought  were  all  obscured.  Conflicting 
tendencies  and  passions  were  raging  with  a  tempestuous  vio- 
lence, among  men  who  were  absolutely  incapable  of  enduring 
an  intellectual  suspense,  and  each  of  the  opposing  sects  pro 
claimed  its  distinctive  doctrines  essential  to  salvation. 
Doubt  Avas   almost    universally  regarded   as   criminal,   and 

-  Ilcckcr,  p.  82. 

^  Ennemoser,  Hist,  of  Magic ^  vol.  ii.  p.  150. 

I  may  here  notice,  by  way  of  illustration,  two  facts  in  the  bic-tory  of  art. 
Die  first  is,  that  those  ghastly  pictures  of  the  dance  of  death,  which  avc'-c  after- 
wards so  popular,  and  which  represented  an  imaginative  bias  of  such  a  wild 
and  morbid  power,  began  in  the  fourteenth  century  {Pcicpiot  sur  les  Danscs  des 
Morts^  pp.  26-31).  The  second  is,  that  in  this  same  century  the  bas-reliefs  on 
cathedrals  frequently  represent  men  kneeling  down  before  the  devil,  and 
devoting  themselves  to  him  as  his  servants  (ilartonne,  Pitte  du  Moyai  Ape, 
p.  137). 


MAGIC    AND    WITCHCEAFT.  79 

error  as  damnable ;  yet  tlie  first  was  the  necessary  condition, 
and  the  second  tlic  probable  consequence,  of  enquiry.  To 
tally  unaccustomed  to  independent  reasoning,  bewildered  by 
the  vast  and  undefined  fields  of  thought  from  wdiicli  the  op- 
posing arguments  Avere  drawn  ;  Avitli  a  profound  sense  of  the 
a])Solute  necessity  of  a  correct  creed,  and  of  the  constant 
action  of  Satan  upon  the  fluctuations  of  the  will  and  of  the 
judgment;  distracted  and  convulsed  by  colliding  sentiments, 
which  an  unenlightened  psychology  attributed  to  spiritual 
inspiration,  and,  above  all,  parched  with  a  burning  longing 
for  certainty;  the  minds  of  men  drifted  to  and  fro  under  the 
influence  of  the  v>'ildest  terror.  ISTone  could  escape  the 
movement.  It  filled  all  Europe  with  alarm,  permeated  with 
its  influence  all  forms  of  thought  and  action,  absorbed  every 
element  of  national  life  into  its  ever-widening  vortex. 

There  certainly  never  has  been  a  movement  which,  in  its 
ultimate  results,  has  contributed  so  largely  to  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  human  mind  from  all  superstitious  terrors  as  the 
Reformation.  It  formed  a  multitude  of  churches,  in  which 
the  spirit  of  qualified  and  partial  scepticism  that  had  long 
been  a  source  of  anarchy,  might  expatiate  with  freedom,  and 
be  allied  with  the  spirit  of  order.  It  rejected  an  immense 
proportion  of  the  dogmatic  and  ritualistic  conceptions  that 
had  almost  covered  the  whole  field  of  religion,  and  rendered 
possible  that  steady  movement  by  which  theology  has  since 
then  been  gravitating  towards  the  moral  fiiculty.  It,  above  all, 
diminished  the  prominence  of  the  clergy,  and  thus  prepared 
the  way  for  that  general  secularisation  of  the  European  in- 
tellect, which  is  such  a  marked  characteristic  of  modern  civil- 
isation. Yet,  inappreciably  great  as  are  these  blessings,  it 
would  be  idle  to  deny  that,  for  a  time,  the  Reformation  ag- 
gravated the  very  evils  it  was  intended  to  correct.     It  Avas, 


80  KATIOXALISM   IN    EUROPE. 

for  a  time,  merely  an  exchange  of  masters.  The  Protestant 
asserted  the  necessity  and  the  certainty  of  his  distinctive 
doctrines,  as  dogmatically  and  authoritatively  as  the  Catho- 
lic. He  believed  in  his  own  infallibility  quite  as  firmly  as 
his  opponent  believed  in  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope.  It  is 
only  by  a  very  slow  process  that  the  human  mind  can 
emerge  from  a  system  of  error;  and  the  virtue  of  dogmas 
had  been  so  ingrained  in  all  religious  thought,  by  the  teach- 
ing of  more  than  twelve  centuries,  that  it  requu-ed  a  long 
and  painful  discipline  to  weaken  what  is  not  yet  destroyed. 
The  nature  of  truth,  the  limits  of  human  faculties,  the  laws 
of  probabilities,  and  the  conditions  that  are  essential  for  an 
impartial  research,  were  subjects  with  which  even  the  most 
advanced  minds  were  then  entirely  unfamiliar.  There  was, 
indeed,  much  cultivation  of  logic,  considered  in  its  most  nar- 
row sense ;  but  there  was  no  such  thing  as  a  comprehensive 
view  of  the  whole  field  of  mental  science,  of  the  laws  and 
limits  of  the  reason.  There  was  also  no  conviction  that  the 
reason  should  be  applied  to  every  department  of  theology, 
with  the  same  unflinching  severity  as  to  any  other  form  of 
speculation.  Faith  always  presented  to  the  mind  the  idea 
of  an  abnormal  intellectual  condition,  of  the  subversion  or 
suspension  of  the  critical  faculties.  It  sometimes  comprised 
more  than  this,  but  it  always  included  this.  It  was  the  op- 
posite of  doubt  and  of  the  spirit  of  doubt.  What  irreverent 
men  called  credulity,  reverent  men  called  faith ;  and  al- 
though one  word  was  more  respectful  than  the  other,  yet 
the  two  words  were  with  most  men  strictly  synonymous. 
Some  of  the  Protestants  added  other  and  moral  ideas  to  tlie 
word,  but  they  firmly  retained  the  intellectual  idea.  As 
long  as  such  a  conception  existed,  a  period  of  religious  con- 
vulsion was  necessarily  a  period  of  extreme  suffering  and 


MAGIC    AXD   WITCHCRAFT.  81 

terror ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  tliat  the  Reformation 
was,  in  consequence,  the  most  painful  of  all  the  transitions 
through  which  the  human  intellect  has  passed. 

If  the  reader  has  seized  the  sj^irit  of  the  foregoing  re 
marks,  he  will  already  have  perceived  their  application  to 
the  history  of  witchcraft.  In  order  that  men  should  believe 
in  witches,  their  intellects  must  have  been  familiarised  with 
the  conceptions  of  Satanic  power  and  Satanic  presence,  and 
they  must  regard  these  things  with  an  unfaltering  belief.  In 
order  that  witchcraft  should  be  prominent,  the  imaginations 
of  men  must  have  been  so  forcibly  directed  to  these  articles 
of  belief,  as  to  tinge  and  govern  the  habitual  current  of 
their  thoughts,  and  to  produce  a  strong  disposition  to  see 
Satanic  agency  around  fhem.  A  long  train  of  circumstances, 
which  culminated  in  the  Reformation,  had  diffused  through 
Christendom  a  religious  terror  which  gradually  overcast  the 
horizon  of  thought,  creating  a  general  uneasiness  as  to  the 
future  of  the  Church,  and  an  intense  and  vivid  sense  of  Sa- 
tanic presence.  These  influences  were,  it  is  true,  primarily 
connected  with  abstruse  points  of  speculative  belief,  but  they 
acted  in  a  twofold  manner  upon  the  grosser  superstitions  of 
the  people.  Although  the  illiterate  cannot  follow  tlie  more 
intricate  speculations  of  their  teachers,  they  can,  as  I  have 
said,  catch  the  general  tone  and  character  of  thought  which 
these  speculations  produce,  and  they  readily  apply  them  to 
their  own  sphere  of  thought.  Besides  this,  the  upper  classes, 
being  filled  witji  a  sense  of  Satanic  presence,  will  be  dis- 
posed to  believe  in  the  reality  of  any  history  of  witchcraft. 
They  will,  therefore,  j^rosecute  the  witches,  and,  as  a  neces- 
sary consequence,  stimulate  the  delusion.  When  tlie  belief 
is  confined  to  the  lower  class,  its  existence  will  be  languish- 
ing and  unprogressive.     But  when  legislators  denounce  it  in 

VOL.  I. — 6 


82  EATIOXALISM   ES"    EUROPE. 

tlieir  la^vs,  and  popc^  in  their  bnlls ;  when  priests  inveigh 
against  it  in  tlieir  pulpits,  and  inquisitors  burn  thousands  at 
the  stake,  the  imaginations  of  men  will  be  inflamed,  the  ter- 
ror will  2DroY3  contagious,  and  the  consequent  delusions  be 
multi2:)lied.  Now,  popes  and  legislators,  priests  and  inquisi 
tors,  will  do  these  things  just  in  proportion  to  the  fii-mness 
of  their  belief  in  the  conceptions  I  have  noticed,  and  to  the 
intensity  Vv'ith  vv^hich  their  imaginations  have  been  directed 
to  those  conceptions  by  religious  terrorism. 

We  have  a  striking  illustration  of  the  influence  upon 
witchcraft  of  the  modes  of  thought  which  the  Reformation 
for  a  time  sustained  in  the  life  of  Luther.  Xo  single  feature 
was  more  clearly  marked  in  his  character  than  an  intense  and 
passionate  sense  of  sin.  He  himself  often  described,  in  the 
most  graphic  language,  how,  in  the  seclusion  of  his  monastery 
at  Wittenberg,  he  had  j)assed  under  the  very  shadow  of 
death,  how  the  gates  of  hell  seemed  to  open  beneath  his  feet, 
and  the  sense  of  hopeless  wretchedness  to  make  life  itself  a 
burden.  While  oppressed  by  the  keenest  sense  of  moral  un- 
worthiness,  he  was  distracted  by  intellectual  doubt.  He  only 
arrived  at  the  doctrines  of  Protestantism  after  a  long  and  dif- 
ficult enquiry,  struggling  slowly  through  successive  phases 
of  belief,  uncheered  for  many  years  by  one  word  of  sym- 
pathy, and  oscillating  painfully  between  opposing  conclu- 
sions. Like  all  men  of  vivid  imagination  who  are  so  circum- 
stanced, a  theological  atmosphere  was  formed  about  his 
mind,  and  became  the  medium  through  which  every  event 
W-is  contemjilatccl.  lie  vras  subject  to  numerous  strange 
hallucinations  and  vibration s^of  judgment,  which  he  in- 
variably attributed  to  the  direct  action  of  Satan.  Satan  be- 
came, in  consequence,  the  dominating  conception  of  his  life. 
In  every  critical  event,  in  every  mental  perturbation,  he  re- 


MAGIC    AND   -WITCHCEAFT.  83 

cognised  Satanic  i:)ower.  In  tlie  monastery  of  ^yittenbe^g, 
he  constantly  heard  the  Devil  making  a  noise  in  the  cloisters  ; 
and  became  at  last  so  accustomed  to  the  fact,  that  he  related 
that,  on  one  occasion,  having  been  awakened  by  the  sound, 
he  perceived  that  it  was  only  the  Devil,  and  accordingly 
went  to  sleep  again.  The  black  stain  in  the  castle  of  Wart- 
burg  still  marks  the  place  where  he  flung  an  ink-bottle  at 
the  Devil.  In  the  midst  of  his  long  and  painful  hesitation  on 
the  subject  of  transubstantiation,  the  Devil  appeared  to  him, 
and  suo-o^ested  a  new  arsiument.  In  such  a  state  of  mind,  he 
naturally  accepted,  with  implicit  faith,  every  anecdote  of 
Satanic  miracles.  He  told  how  an  aged  minister  had  been 
interrupted,  in  the  midst  of  his  devotions,  by  a  devil  who 
was  grunting  behind  him  like  a  pig.  At  Torgau,  the  Devil 
broke  pots  and  basins,  and  flung  them  at  the  minister's  head, 
and  at  last  drove  the  minister's  wife  and  servants  half  crazy 
out  of  the  house.  On  another  occasion,  the  Devil  appeared 
in  the  law  courts,  in  the  character  of  a  leading  barrister, 
whose  place  he  is  said  to  have  filled  with  the  utmost  pro- 
priety. Fools,  deformed  persons,  the  blind  and  the  dumb, 
were  possessed  by  devils.  Physicians,  indeed,  attempted  to 
explain  these  infirmities  by  natural  causes;  but  those  physi- 
cians were  ignorant  men ;  they  did  not  know  all  the  power 
of  Satan.  Every  form  of  disease  might  be  produced  by 
Satan,  or  by  his  agents,  the  Avitches ;  and  none  of  the  infirmi- 
ties to  which  Luther  was  liable  were  natural,  but  his  ear-ache 
was  peculiarly  diabolical.  Hail,  thunder,  and  plagues  are  all; 
the  direct  consequences  of  the  intervention  of  spirits.  Many ' 
of  those  persons  who  were  supposed  to  have  committed  sui- 
cide, had  in  reality  been  seized  by  the  Devil  and  strangled  by 
him,  as  the  traveller  is  strangled  by  the  robber.  The  Devil 
could  transport  men  at  his  will  through  the  air.     He  could  be- 


84  EATIOXALISM   IX    EUROPE. 

get  children,  and  Luther  had  hmiself  come  in  contact  with  one 
of  them.  An  intense  love  of  children  was  one  of  the  most 
amiable  characteristics  of  the  great  Reformer ;  but,  on  this 
occasion,  he  most  earnestly  recommended  the  reputed  rela- 
tives to  throw  the  child  into  a  river,  in  order  to  free  their 
house  from  the  presence  of  a  devil.  As  a  natural  conse- 
quence of  these  modes  of  thought,  witchcraft  did  not  present 
the  slightest  improbability  to  his  mind.  In  strict  accordance 
with  the  spirit  of  his  age,  he  continually  asserted  the  existence 
and  frequency  of  the  crime,  and  emphatically  proclaimed  the 
duty  of  burning  the  witches.^ 

I  know,  indeed,  few  stranger,  and  at  the  same  time  more 
terrible  pictures,  than  are  furnished  by  the  history  of  witch- 
craft during  the  century  that  preceded  and  the  century  that 
followed  the  Reformation.  Wherever  the  conflict  of  opinions 
was  raging  among  the  educated,  witchcraft,  like  an  attendant 
shadow,  pursued  its  course  among  the  ignorant ;  "^  and  Prot- 
estants and  Catholics  vied  with  each  other  in  the  zeal  with 
which  they  prosecuted  it.  ^N'ever  was  the  power  of  imagina- 
tion— that  strange  faculty  which  casts  the  shadow  of  its 
images  over  the  whole  creation,  and  combines  all  the  phenom- 
ena of  life  according  to  its  own  archetypes — more  striking- 
ly evinced.  Superstitious  and  terror-stricken,  the  minds  of 
men  were  impelled  irresistibly  towards  the  miraculous  and 
the  Satanic,  and  they  found  them  upon  every  side.  The 
elements  of  imposture  blended  so  curiously  with  the  elements 
of  delusion,  that  it  is  now  impossible  to  separate  them. 
Sometinies  an  ambitious  woman,  braving  the  dangers  of  her 

^  Colloquia  Mensalla.  Erasmus  was  an  equally  firm  believer  in  witcbcrift. 
(Stewart's  Disscrtalion^  P  ^'J'-) 

^  This  coexistence  has  been  noticed  by  many  writers ;  and  Xaude  {Apologie^ 
pp.  110,  111)  observes,  that  nearly  all  the  heresies  previous  to  the  Reformation 
had  been  also  accompanied  by  an  outburst  of  sorcery. 


MAGIC    AND    WITCHCRAFT.  85 

act,  boldly  claimed  supernatural  power,  and  the  haughtiest 
and  the  most  courageous  cowered  humbly  at  her  presence. 
Sometimes  a  husband  attempted,  in  the  witch  courts,  to  cut 
the  tie  which  his  church  had  pronounced  indissoluble ;  and 
numbers  of  wives  have,  in  consequence,  perished  at  the 
stake.  Sometimes  a  dexterous  criminal  availed  himself  of 
the  panic ;  and,  directing  a  charge  of  witchcraft  against  his 
accuser,  escaped  himself  with  impunity.  Sometimes,  too,  a 
personal  grudge  was  avenged  by  the  accusation,  or  a  real 
crime  was  attributed  to  sorcery  ;  or  a  hail-storm,  or  a  strange 
disease,  suggested  the  presence  of  a  witch.  But,  for  the 
most  part,  the  trials  represent  pure  and  unmingled  delusions. 
The  defenders  of  the  belief  were  able  to  maintain  that  multi- 
tudes had  voluntarily  confessed  themselves  guilty  of  com- 
merce with  the  Evil  One,  and  had  persisted  in  their  confes- 
sions till  death.  Madness  is  always  peculiarly  frequent 
during  great  religious  or  political  revolutions ;  ^  and,  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  all  its  forms  were  absorbed  in  the  system 
of  witchcraft,  and  caught  the  colour  of  the  prevailing  predis- 
position.^ Occasionally,  too,  we  find  old  and  half-doting 
women,  at  first  convinced  of  their  innocence,  but  soon  falter- 
ing before  the  majesty  of  justice,  asking  timidly  whether  it 
is  possible  to  be  in  connection  with  the  Devil  without  being 
conscious  of  the  fact,  and  at  last  almost  persuading  themselves 
that  they  had  done  what  was  alleged.  Yery  often,  the  terror 
of  the  trial,  the  prospect  of  the  most  agonising  of  deaths,  and 
the  frightful  tortures  that  were  applied  to  the  weak  frame  of 
an  old  and  feeble  vv^oman,'  overpowered  her  understanding ; 

^  Buckle's  Hist,  vol.  i.  p.  424,  note.  -  Calracil. 

^  For  a  frightful  catalogue  of  the  tortures  that  were  employed  hi  these  cases, 
Bee  Scott's  Discovery  of  Witchcraft  (London,  1665),  pp.  11,  12.  All  the  old 
treatises  are  full  of  the  subject.  Sprenger  recommends  the  tortures  to  be  con- 
tinued two  or  three  days,  till  the  prisoner  was,  as  he  expresses  it,  '  decentci 


86  EATIO]S"ALISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

her  brain  reeled  beneath  the  accumulated  suiferingj  tlie  con 
sciousness  of  innocence  disa2:)peared,  and  the  wretched  A'ictim 
went  raving  to  the  flames,  convinced  that  she  was  about  to 
sink  for  ever  into  perdition.  The  zeal  of  the  ecclesiastics  in 
stimulating  the  persecution  was  unflagging.  It  was  dis- 
played alike  in  Germany,  France,  Spain,  Italy,  Flanders, 
Sweden,  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland.  An  old  writer  who 
cordially  approved  of  the  rigour  tells  us  that,  in  the  province 
of  Como  alone,  eight  or  ten  inquisitors  were  constantly  em- 
ployed ;  and  he  adds  that,  in  one  year,  the  number  of  persons 
they  condemned  amounted  to  a  thousand;  and  that  during 
several  of  the  succeeding  years,  the  victims  seldom  fell  below 
one  hundred.^ 

It  was  natural  that  a  body  of  learned  men  like  the  inquisi- 
tors, whose  habits  of  thought  were  eminently  retrospective, 
should  have  formed  some  general  theories  connecting  the 
phenomena  of  sorcery  vv^ith  past  events,  and  reducing  them 
to  a  systematic  form.  We  accordingly  find  that,  in  the 
course  of  about  three  centuries,  a  vast  literature  was  formed 
upon  the  subject.  The  different  forms  of  witchcraft  were  all 
carefully  classified  and  associated  with  particular  doctrines  ; 
the  whole  philosophy  of  the  Satanic  was  minutely  investi- 
gated, and  the  prevailing  mode  of  thought  embodied  in  count- 
less treatises,  which  were  once  regarded  as  masterpieces  of 
orthodox  theology. 

It  is  very  difficult  for  us  in  the  present  day  to  do  justice 
to  these  works,  or  to  realise  the  points  of  view  from  which 
tliey  were  written.     A  2:>rofound  scepticism  on  all  subjects 

qiiaestionatus '  (Pars  iii.  Quoest.  14,  15).  The  tortures  were  all  the  more  horri- 
ble, because  it  was  generally  believed  that  the  witches  had  charms  to  deader 
their  effect. 

^  Spina,  cap.  xii. 


MAGIC    AND    WITCHCEAFT.  87 

coiiiiectecl  with  tlie  Devil  underlies  the  opinions  of  almost 
every  educated  man,  and  renders  it  difficult  even  to  conceive 
a  condition  of  thought  in  which  that  spirit  was  the  object  of 
iin  intense  and  realised  belief.  An  anecdote  wliich  involves 
the  personal  intervention  of  Satan  is  now  regarded  as  quite 
as  intrinsically  absurd,  and  unworthy  of  serious  attention, 
as  an  anecdote  of  a  fairy  or  of  a  sylph.  When,  therefore,  a 
modern  reader  turns  over  the  pages  of  an  old  treatise  on 
witchcraft,  and  finds  hundreds  of  such  anecdotes  related  with 
the  gravest  assurance,  he  is  often  inclined  to  depreciate  very 
unduly  the  intellect  of  an  author  who  represents  a  condition 
of  thought  so  unlike  his  own.  The  cold  indifference  to 
human  suffering  which  these  writers  display  gives  an  addi- 
tional bias  to  his  reason  ;  vdiile  their  extraordinary  pedantry, 
their  execrable  Latin,  and  their  gross  scientific  blunders,  fur- 
nish ample  materials  for  his  ridicule.  Besides  this,  Sprenger, 
who  is  at  once  the  most  celebrated,  and,  perhaps,  the  most 
credulous  member  of  his  class,  unfortunately  for  his  reputa- 
tion, made  some  ambitious  excursions  into  another  field,  and 
immortalised  himself  by  a  series  of  etymological  blunders, 
which  have  been  the  delight  of  all  succeeding  scholars.^ 

Bat  when  all  these  qualifications  have  been  made — and, 
with  the  exception  of  the  last,  they  would  all  apply  to  any 
other  writings  of  the  same  period — it  is,  I  think,  impossible 

^  'Foemina,'  he  assures  us,  is  derived  from  Fc  and  minus,  because  '\\'omen 
have  less  faith  than  men  (p.  65).  Maleficicndo  is  from  male  de  fides  cntiendo. 
For  diabolus  we  have  a  choice  of  most  instructive  derivations.  It  comes  '  a 
dia  quod  est  duo,  et  bolus  quod  est  morsellus,  quia  duo  occidit,  scilicet  corpus 
et  animam.  Et  secundum  etymologiam,  licet  Grgece,  interpretetur  diabolus 
clausus  ergastulo :  et  hoc  sibi  convenit  cum  non  permittitur  sibi  nocere  quan- 
tum vellet.  Vel  diabolus  quasi  dcfluens,  quia  defluxit,  id  est  corruit,  et  spc- 
iialiter  et  localiter'  (p.  41).  If  the  reader  is  curious  in  these  matters,  he  will 
find  another  astounding  instance  of  verbal  criticism,  which  I  do  not  venture  tc 
quote,  in  Bodin,  Dcm.  p.  40. 


88  liATIOXALISM   DT    EUROPE. 

to  deny  that  the  books  m  defence  of  tlie  belief  are  not  only 
far  more  numerous  than  the  later  works  against  it,  but  that 
they  also  represent  far  more  learning,  dialectic  skill,  and  even 
general  ability.     For  many  centuries,  the  ablest  men  were 
not  merely  unwilling  to   repudiate  the  superstition ;    they 
often  pressed  forward  earnestly,  and  with  the  most  intense 
conviction,  to  defend  it.     Indeed,  during  the  period  wlien 
witchcraft  was  most  prevalent,  there  were  few  writers  of 
real  eminence  who  did  not,  on  some  occasion,  take  especial 
pains  to  throw  the  weight  of  their  authority  into  the  scale. 
Thomas  Aquinas  was  probably  the  ablest  writer  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  and  he  assures  us  that  diseases  and  tempests 
are  the  direct  acts  of  the  Devil ;  that  the  Devil  can  transport 
men  at  his  pleasure  through  the  air ;  and  that  he  can  trans- 
form them  into  any  shape.     Gerson,  the  Chancellor  of  the 
University  of  Paris,  and,  as  many  think,  the  author  of  'The 
Imitation,'  is  justly  regarded  as  one  of  the  master-intellects 
of  his  age;    and  he,  too,  wrote  in  defence  of  the  belief. 
Bodin  was  unquestionably  the  most  original  political  j^hiloso- 
pher  Avho  had  arisen  since  Macchiavelli,  and  he  devoted  all  his 
learning  and  acuteness  to  crushing  the  rising  scepticism  on 
the  subject  of  witches.     The  truth  is,  that,  in  those  ages, 
ability  vras  no  guarantee  against  error ;  because  the  single 
employment  of  the  reason  was  to  develop  and  expand  prem- 
ises  that  were  furnished  by  the  Church.      There  was   no 
such  thing  as  an  uncompromising  and  unreserved  criticism 
of  the  first  principles  of  teaching ;  there  was  no  such  thing 
as  a  revolt  of  the  reason  against  conclusions  that  were  strictly 
drawn  from  the  premises  of  authority.     In  our  age,  and  in 
every  other  age  of  half  belief,  principles  are  often  adopted 
without  being  fully  developed.     If  a  conclusion  is  drawn 
from  them,  men  enquire,  not  merely  whether  the  deduction 


MAGIC    AND    WITCnCEAFT.  89 

is  correct,  but  also  wlietlier  its  result  seems  intrinsically 
probable ;  and  if  it  does  not  appear  so,  tliey  Avill  reject  the 
conclusion,  without  absolutely  rejecting  the  premise.  In  the 
ages  of  witchcraft,  an  inexorable  logic  prevailed.  Men  Avere 
so  firmly  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  doctrines  they  were 
taught,  that  those  doctrines  became  to  them  the  measure  of 
probability,  and  no  event  that  seemed  to  harmonise  with 
them  presented  the  slightest  difficulty  to  the  mind.  They 
governed  the  imagination,  w^hile  they  subdued  the  reason, 
and  secular  considerations  never  intervened  to  damp  their 
assurance.  The  ablest  men  were  not  mifreqr-ently  the  most 
credulous ;  because  their  ability  was  chiefly  employed  in  dis- 
covering analogies  between  every  startling  narrative  and  the 
principles  of  their  faith,  and  their  success  was  a  measure  of 
their  ingenuity. 

It  is  these  considerations  that  give  the  w^ritings  of  the 
period  I  am  referring  to  so  great  an  importance  in  the  his- 
tory of  opinions,  and  which  also  make  it  so  difiicult  for  us  to 
appreciate  their  force.  I  shall  endeavour  to  lay  before  the 
reader,  in  as  concise  a  form  as  I  am  able,  some  of  the  leading 
principles  they  embodied;  which,  acting  on  the  imagina- 
tion, contributed  to  produce  the  phenomena  of  witchcraft ; 
and,  acting  on  the  reason,  persuaded  men  that  the  narratives 
of  witches  were  antecedently  probable.^ 

It  was  universally  taught  that  innumerable  evil  spirits 

were  ranging  over  the  Avorld,  seeking  the  present  unhappi- 

ncss  and  the  future  ruin  of  mankind ;  that  these  spirits  w^ere 

'  The  principal  authority  on  these  matters  is  a  large  collection  of  Latin 
Tvoi-ks  (in  great  part  written  l3y  inquisitors),  extending  over  about  two  cen- 
turies, and  published  under  the  title  of  Malleus  Maleficarum  (the  title  of 
Sprenger's  book).  It  comprises  the  works  of  Sprenger,  Nidcr,  Basin,  Molitor, 
Gerson,  Murner,  Spina,  Laurcntius,  Bernardus,  Vignitus,  Grillandus,  &c.  1 
have  noticed  a  great  many  other  works  in  their  places,  and  the  reader  maj 
find  reviews  of  many  others  in  Madden  and  Plancy. 


90  ItATIOXALISM   IX    EUEOPE. 

fallen  angels,  who  had  retained  many,  if  not  all,  the  .angelic 
capacities ;  and  that  they,  at  all  events,  possessed  a  power 
and  wisdom  flir  transcending  the  limits  of  human  faculties. 
From  those  conceptions,  many  imj)ortant  consequences  were 
evolved.  If  these  spirits  are  for  ever  hovering  around  us,  it 
was  said,  it  is  surely  not  improbable  that  we  should  meet 
some  signs  of  their  j^resence.  If  they  delight  in  the  smallest 
misfortune  that  can  befall  mankind,  and  possess  far  more 
than  human  capacities  for  inflicting  suffering,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  they  should  direct  against  men  the  energies  of 
siip3rhuman  malice.  If  their  highest  object  is  to  secure  the 
ultimate  ruin  of  man,  we  need  not  w^onder  that  they  should 
offer  their  services  to  those  who  Avould  bribe  them  by  the 
surrender  of  their  hopes.  That  such  a  compact  can  be 
made — that  it  is  possible  for  men  to  direct  the  energies  of 
evil  spirits — was  established  by  the  clearest  authority. 
'  Thou  shalt  not  suffer  a  Avitch  to  live,'  was  the  solemn  in- 
junction which  liad  been  more  than  once  repeated  in  the 
Levitical  code ;  and  the  history  of  the  witch  of  Endor  fur- 
nishes a  detailed  description  of  the  circumstances  of  the 
crime.  The  Fathers  had  denounced  magic  with  a  unanimous 
and  unvarying  voice,  and  the  writings  of  every  nation  bear 
traces  of  the  universality  of  the  belief  In  an  age  which 
was  essentially  retrospective,  it  was  impossible  to  name  a 
tenet  which  could  seem  more  probable,  for  there  was  none 
which  was  more  closely  connected  with  antiquity,  both 
ecclesiastical  and  profane. 

The  popular  belief,  however,  not  only  asserted  the  possi- 
bility and  continued  existence  of  witchcraft,  it  also  entered 
into  many  of  what  we  should  noAV  deem  the  most  extrava- 
gant and  grotesque  details.  In  the  first  place,  one  of  the 
most  ordinary  operations  of  the  witch,  or  of  the  Devil  actinoj 


MAGIC   AND   WITCHCRAFT.  91 

at  lier  commaiid,  avms  to  cause  tem2:)ests,  which  it  was  said 
frequently  desohited  the  fields  of  a  single  person,  leaving  the 
rest  of  the  country  entirely  untouched.  If  any  one  ventured 
to  deny  that  Satan  possessed,  or  was  likely  to  exercise  this 
power,  he  Avas  speedily  silenced  by  a  scriptural  precedent. 
We  read  in  the  Old  Testament  that  the  Devil,  by  the  Divine 
permission,  afflicted  Job ;  and  that  among  the  means  which 
he  employed  was  a  tempest  which  destroyed  the  house  in 
which  the  sons  of  the  patriarch  were  eating.  The  descrip- 
tion, in  the  book  of  Revelation,  of  the  four  angels  who  held 
the  four  winds,  and  to  whom  it  was  given  to  afflict  the  earth, 
was  also  generally  associated  Avith  this  belief;  for,  as  St.  Au- 
gustine tells  us,  the  word  angel  is  equally  applicable  to  good 
or  bad  spirits.  Besides  this,  the  Devil  was  always  spoken 
of  as  the  prince  of  the  air.  His  immense  knowledge  and  his 
immense  power  would  place  the  immediate  causes  of  atmos- 
pheric disturbances  at  his  disposal ;  and  the  sudden  tempest 
would,  therefore,  be  no  violation  of  natural  laws,  but  simply 
an  instance  of  their  application  by  superhTunan  power. 
These  considerations  were,  it  was  thought,  sufficient  to  re- 
move all  sense  of  the  antecedent  improbability  of  the  facts 
which  were  alleged ;  but  every  uncertainty  was  dispelled  by 
the  uniform  teaching  of  the  Church.  At  all  times,  the 
Fathers  and  the  mediaeval  saints  had  taught,  like  the  teachers 
of  every  other  religion  in  the  same  early  stage  of  civilisa- 
tion, that  all  the  more  remarkable  atmospheric  changes  re- 
sulted from  the  direct  intervention  of  spirits.^  Rain  seems 
to  have  been  commonly  associated,  as  it  still  is  in  the  Church 
of  England,  with  the  intervention  of  the  Deity ;  but  wind 
and  hail  were  invariably  identified  with  the  Devil.     If  the 

^  Ou  the  universality  of  this  bchef,  iu  an  early  stage  of  civilisation,  see 
Buckle's  Histor)/,  vol.  i.  p.  346. 


92  EAllOXALISM   IX   EUEOPE. 

Devil  could  orig-iiiate  a  tempest,  it  followed,  as  a  necessary 
consequence,  that  witches  who  had  entered  into  compact 
with  him  had  the  same  poorer. 

The  same  principles  of  argument  applied  to  disease. 
The  Devil  had  afflicted  Job  with  horrible  diseases,  and 
might  therefore  afflict  others.  Great  pestilences  were  con- 
stantly described  in  the  Old  Testament  as  the  acts  of  the 
angels ;  and  the  Devil,  by  the  permission  of  the  Deity  and 
by  virtue  of  his  angelic  capacities,  might  therefore  easily 
produce  them.  The  history  of  the  demoniacs  proves  that 
devils  could  master  and  derange  the  bodily  functions  ;  and, 
therefore,  to  deny  that  they  could  produce  disease,  would  be 
to  impugn  the  veracity  of  these  narratives ;  and  the  later 
ecclesiastical  testimony  on  the  subject,  if  not  unanimous, 
was,  at  least,  extremely  strong.  As,  therefore,  the  more 
striking  atmospheric  disturbances  were  ascribed  generally  to 
the  Devil,  and,  Avhen  the  injury  was  spread  over  a  small 
area,  to  witches ;  so,  the  pestilences  wliich  desolated  nations 
were  deemed  supernatural,  and  every  strange  and  unac- 
countable disease  that  fell  upon  an  individual,  a  result  of  the 
malice  of  a  sorcerer.  If  the  witch  could  produce  disease  by 
her  incantations,  there  was  no  difficulty  in  believing  that 
she  could  also  remove  it.^ 

^  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  a  considerable  amount  of  poisoning  was 
mixed  up  with  the  witch  cases.  In  ages  when  medical  knowledge  was  scanty, 
and  post  mortem  examinations  unkno^^^,  this  crime  was  peculiarly  dreaded 
and  appeared  peculiarly  mysterious.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  equally  certain 
that  the  witches  constantly  employed  their  knowledge  of  the  property  of  herba 
for  the  purpose  of  curing  disease,  and  that  they  attained,  in  this  respect,  a  skill 
which  was  hardly  equalled  by  the  regular  practitioners.  To  the  evidence 
which  Michelet  has  collected  on  this  matter,  I  may  add  a  striking  passage 
from  Grillandus.  '  Quandoque  vero  provenit  febris,  tussis,  dementia,  phthisis, 
hydropsis,  aut  aliqua  tumefactio  carnis  in  corpore,  sive  apostcma  extrinsecus 
apparens:  quandoque  vero  intrinscce  apud  intestina  aliquod  apostema  sit  adeo 
terribile  et  incurabilc  quod  nulla  pars  mcdicorum  id  eanare  et  removere  potest, 


MAGIC   AND    AVITCIICEArT.  93 

These  propositions  were  unanimously  and  firmly  believed. 
They  were  illustrated  by  anecdotes,  the  countless  numbers 
of  which  can  only  be  appreciated  by  those  who  have  studied 
the  literature  at  its  source.  They  were  indelibly  graven  on 
the  minds  of  men  by  hundreds  of  trials  and  of  executions, 
and  they  were  admitted  by  almost  all  tbe  ablest  men  in 
Christendom. 

There  were  other  details,  however,  wdiich  excited  consid- 
erable discussion.  One  of  the  most  striking  of  these  was 
the  transportation  of  witches  through  the  air.  That  an  old 
woman  could  be  carried  some  hundreds  of  miles  in  a  few 
minutes  on  a  broomstick  or  a  goat,  or  in  any  other  way  the 
Devil  might  select,  would,  in  the  present  day,  be  regarded 
as  so  essentially  and  grotesquely  absurd,  that  it  is  probable 
that  no  conceivable  amount  of  testimony  would  convince 
men  of  its  reality.  At  the  period  of  which  I  am  writing, 
this  rationalistic  spirit  did  undoubtedly  exist  in  a  few 
minds  ;  for  it  is  noticed,  though  with  extreme'  contempt,  by 
some  of  the  writers  on  the  subject,  who  treated-  it  as  a 
manifest  mental  aberration ;  but  it  had  not  yet  assumed  any 
importance.  The  measure  of  probability  was  still  essentially 
theological ;  and  the  only  question  that  was  asked  was,  how 
far  the  narratives  conformed  with  the  theological  conception 
of  a  spirit.  On  this  point  there  seemed,  at  first  sight,  much 
difficulty,  and  considerable  ingenuity  was  applied  to  eluci- 
dating it.  Satan,  it  was  remembered,  had  borne  Christ 
through  the  air,  and  placed  him  on  a  pinnacle  of  the  temple  • 
and  therefore,  said   St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  if   he  could   do 


nisi  accedat  alius  maleficus,  sive  sortilegus,  qui  contrariis  medelis  et  remediia 
segritudincm  ipsam  meleficam  tollat,  quam  facile  et  brevi  tempore  removerc  po- 
test, cseteri  vero  medici  qui  art  em  ipsius  medicina)  profitcntur  nihil  valent  et  no 
Bciunt  afferre  rcmedium.'     [MaU.  Ma!.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  393,  394.) 


94:  KATIOXALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

this  to  one  body  he  could  do  it  to  alh  The  proj^het  Habak- 
kuk  had  been  transported  by  a  spirit  from  Jndea  to  Babylon, 
and  Philip  the  Evangelist  had  been  the  object  of  a  similar 
miracle.  St.  Paul  had  likewise  been  carried,  perhaps  in  the 
body,  into  the  third  heaven. 

This  evidence  was  ample  and  conclusive;  but  other  per- 
plexing difficulties  arose.  iSTothing  in  the  witch  trials  was 
more  minutely  described  than  the  witches'  Sabbath,  and 
many  hundreds  of  women  had  been  burnt  alive  for  attending 
it.  Occasionally,  however,  it  happened  that,  when  a  woman 
had  been  condemned  on  this  charge  by  her  own  confession, 
or  by  the  evidence  of  other  Avitches,  her  husband  came  forth 
and  swore  that  his  wife  had  not  left  his  side  during:  the  nieht 
in  question.  The  testimony  of  so  near  a  relative  might,  per- 
haps, be  explained  by  perjury ;  but  other  evidence  was  ad- 
duced which  it  was  more  difficult  to  evade.  It  was  stated 
that  women  were  often  found  lying  in  a  state  of  trance,  in- 
sensible to  pain,  and  without  the  smallest  sign  of  life ;  that, 
after  a  time,  their  consciousness  returned,  and  that  they  then 
confessed  that  they  had  been  at  the  witches'  Sabbath.  These 
statements  soon  attracted  the  attention  of  theologians,  who 
were  much  divided  in  their  judgments.  Some  were  of  opm- 
ion  that  the  witcli  was  laboring  under  a  delusion  of  the  Devil ; 
but  they  often  added  that,  as  the  delusion  originated  in  a 
compact,  she  should,  notwithstanding,  be  burned.  Others 
suggested  a  bolder  and  very  startling  exj^lanation.  That 
the  same  portion  of  matter  cannot  be  in  two  places  at  once, 
is  a  proposition  which  rests  entirely  on  the  laws  of  nature; 
but  those  laws  have  no  existence  for  the  miraculous  ;  and  the 
miracle  of  transubstantiation  seems  to  destroy  all  the  improb- 
ability of  the  pluri-presence  of  a  human  body.  At  all  events, 
the  Devil  might  furnish,  for  tlie  occasion,  a   dunlicate  bodv, 


MAGIC    AND    WITCHCKAFT  95 

in  order  to  baffle  the  ministers  of  justice.  This  latter  opinion 
became  extremely  popular  among  theologians ;  and  two  fa- 
mous Catholic  miracles  were  triumphantly  quoted  in  its  sup- 
port. St.  Ambrose  was,  on  one  occasion,  celebrating  mass  in 
a  church  at  Milan,  w^hen  he  suddenly  paused  in  the  midst  of 
the  service.  His  head  sank  upon  the  altar,  and  he  remained 
motionless,  as  in  a  trance,  for  the  space  of  three  hours.  The 
congregation  waited  silently  for  the  benediction.  At  last  the 
consciousness  of  the  saint  returned,  and  he  assured  his  hear- 
ers that  he  had  been  officiating  at  Tours  at  the  burial  of  St. 
Martin,  a  statement  which  was,  of  course,  in  a  few  days  veri- 
fied. A  similar  miracle  was  related  of  St.  Clement.  This 
early  saint,  in  the  midst  of  a  mass  at  Rome,  was  called  aAvay 
to  consecrate  a  church  at  Pisa.  His  body,,  or  an  angel  who 
had  assumed  its  form,  remained  at  Rome;  but  the  saint  Avas 
at  the  same  time  present  at  Pisa,  where  he  left  some  drops  of 
blood  upon  the  marble  for  a  memorial  of  the  miracle.^  On  the 
whole,  the  most  general  opinion  seems  to  have  been,  that  the 
witches  were  sometimes  transported  to  the  Sabbath  in  body, 
and  sometimes  in  spirit ;  and  that  devils  occasionally  assumed 
their  forms  in  order  to  baffle  the  sagacity  of  the  judges.^ 

Another  important  and  much  discussed  department,  vras 
the  connection  between  evil  spirits  and  animals.  That  the 
Devil   could  assume   the  form  of   any  animal'  he  pleased, 

*  Spina,  De  Strigihtis  (1322),  cap.  xi. 

"^  All  the  phenomena  of  somnambulism  were  mixed  up  with  the  question. 
See,  e.  g.,  Spina,  cap.  x.  and  xi,,  where  it  is  fully  discussed.  Many  curious  no- 
tions were  held  about  somnambulism.  One  opinion  was,  that  the  somnambu- 
lists had  never  been  baptised,  or  had  been  baptised  by  a  drunken  priest. 

^  This  belief  was  probably  sustained  by  the  great  use  made  of  animals  in 
Christian  symbolism  as  representatives  of  moral  qualities.  Indifferent  districts 
different  animals  were  supposed  to  be  in  especial  connection  with  spirits. 
Dclrio  mentions  that  the  ancient  Irish  had  such  a  veneration  for  wolves  that 
they  were  accustomed  to  pray  for  their  salvation,  and  to  choose  them  as  god- 


9G  RATIOXALISM    IX    EUEOPE. 

seems  to  have  been  generally  aclmittecl ;  and  it  presented  no 
difficulty  to  those  who  remembered  that  the  first  appearance 
of  that  personage  on  earth  was  as  a  serj^ent,  and  that  on  one 
occasion  a  legion  of  devils  had  entered  into  a  herd  of  swine. 
St.  Jerome  also  assures  us  that,  in  the  desert,  St.  Antony  had 
met  a  centaur  and  a  faun — a  little  man  with  horns  growing 
from  his  forehead — Y>iio  were  possibly  devils ;  ^  and,  at  all 
events,  at  a  later  period,  the  lives  of  the  saints  represent  evil 
spirits  in  the  form  of  animals  as  not  unfrequent.  Lycan- 
throjDy,  however,  or  the  transformation  of  Avitches  into  wolves, 
presented  more  difficulty.  The  history  of  IS^ebuchadnezzar, 
and  the  conversion  of  Lot's  wife,  were,  it  is  true,  eagerly  al- 
leged in  support  of  its  possibility ;  but  it  was  impossible  to  for- 
get that  St.  Augustine  appeared  to  regard  lycanthropy  as  a 
fable,  and  that  a  canon  of  the  council  of  Ancyra  had  emphat- 
ically condemned  the  belief.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was 
no  opinion  more  universally  held  among  the  ancients.     It  had 

fathers  for  their  children  (Thiers'  Superst.^  vol.  ii.  p.  198).  Beelzebub,  as  is 
well  known,  was  god  of  flies.  '  Par  ce  qu'il  n'y  avoit  pas  une  mouche  en  son 
temple,  comme  on  diet  qu'au  Palais  de  Venise  il  n'y  a  pas  une  seule  mouche  et 
au  Palais  de  Tolede  qu'il  n'y  en  a  qu'une,  qui  n'est  pas  chose  estrange  ou 
nouvelle,  car  nous  lisons  que  les  Cyrenaiques,  apres  avoir  sacrifie  au  dieu 
Acaron,  dicu  des  moviches,  et  les  Grecs  a  Jupiter,  surnomme  Myiodes,  c'est  ^ 
dire  mouchard,  toutes  les  mouches  s'envolaient  en  une  nuee,  comme  nous  lisons 
en  Pausanias  Li  Arcadicis  et  en  Pline  au  livre  xxix.  cap.  6.'  (Bodin,  Demon.^ 
p.  15.)  Dancing  bears  and  other  inteUigent  animals  seem  to  have  been  also 
connected  with  the  Devil ;  and  an  old  council  anathematised  at  once  magicians 
who  have  abandoned  their  Creator,  fortune-tellers,  and  those  '  qui  ursas  aut  ^ 
similes  bestias  ad  ludum  et  perniciem  simpliciorum  circuraferunt ' — 'for  what 
fellowship  can  there  be  between  Christ  and  Belial  ? '  (AVier,  Dc  Freest.  Deem.,  p. 
557.)  The  ascription  of  intelligence  to  animals  was  general  through  the  mid- 
dle ages,  but  it  was  most  prominent  in  the  Celtic  race.  See  a  curious  chapter 
on  mystic  animals  in  DalycU's  Superstitions  in  Scotland,  and  also  the  essay  of 
Kenan  on  Celtic  Poetry.  Muratori  [Antig.  Ital.,  Diss,  xxix.)  quotes  an  amusing 
passage  from  a  writer  of  the  eleventh  century,  concerning  a  dog  which  in  that 
century  was  '  moved  by  the  spii^it  of  Pytho.' 
^   Vita  S.  Fanli. 


MAGIC   AND    WITCHCEAFT.  97 

been  accepted  by  many  of  tlie  greatest  and  most  orthodox 
theologians,  by  the  inquisitors  who  were  commissioned  by 
the  popes,  and  by  the  laAV  courts  of  most  countries.  The 
evidence  on  which  it  rested  was  very  curious  and  definite. 
If  the  witch  was  wounded  in  the  form  of  an  animal,  she 
retained  that  wound  in  her  human  form,  and  liundreds  of 
sucli  cases  were  alleged  before  the  tribunals.  Sometimes  the 
hunter,  having  severed  the  paw  of  his  assailant,  retained  it  as 
a  trophy ;  but  when  he  opened  his  bag,  he  discovered  in  it 
only  a  bleeding  hand,  which  he  recognised  as  the  hand  of  liis 
wife.' 

^  'L'existence  dcs  loups-garous  eat  attestce  par  Tirgile,  Solin,  Strabon, 
Pomponius  Mela,  Dionysius  Afer,  Varron,  et  par  tous  les  jurisconsultes  et 
demonomanes  des  derniers  siecles.  A  peine  commen9ait-on  h  en  douter  sous 
Louis  XIV,'  (Plancy,  Did.  Infernale,  Lycanthropie.)  Bodin,  in  his  chapter 
on  Lycanthropy,  and  in  our  own  day  Madden  (vol.  i.  pp.  334-358),  have  col- 
lected immense  numbers  of  additional  authorities.  St.  Augustine  notices  the 
subject  with  considerable  hesitation,  but  on  the  whole  inclines,  as  I  have  said, 
towards  incredulity  {Civ.  Del,  hb.  xviii.  c.  lY,  18).  He  also  tells  us  that  in  his 
time  there  were  some  innkeepers,  who  were  said  to  give  their  guests  drugs  in 
cheese,  and  thus  to  turn  them  into  animals.  (Ibid.)  In  the  Salic  laws  of  the 
fifth  century  there  is  a  curious  enactment  '  that  any  sorceress  who  has  devoured 
a  man  should  on  conviction  be  fined  200  sous '  (Garinet,  p.  6).  To  come  down 
to  a  later  period,  we  find  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  asserting  that  '  Omncs  angeli 
boni  et  mall,  ex  virtute  naturali,  habent  potestatem  transmutandi  corpora 
nostra ; '  and,  according  to  Bodin,  Paracelsus  and  Fernel,  the  chief  physician  of 
Henry  IV.,  held  a  similar  belief.  There  is  probably  no  country  in  Europe — 
perhaps  no  country  in  the  world — in  which. some  form  of  this  superstition  has 
not  existed.  It  raged  however  especially  where  wolves  abounded — among  the 
Jura,  in  Norway,  Russia,  Ireland  (where  the  inhabitants  of  Ossory,  according  to 
Camden,  were  said  to  become  wolves  once  every  seven  years),  in  the  Pyrenees 
and  Greece.  The  Italian  women  usually  became  cats.  In  the  East  (as  the 
'  Arabian  Nights'  show)  many  forms  were  assumed.  A  French  judge  named 
Boguet,  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  devoted  himself  especially  to  the 
subject,  burnt  multitudes  of  lycanthropes,  wrote  a  book  about  them,  and  drew 
up  a  code  in  which  he  permitted  ordinary  Avitches  to  be  strangled  before  they 
were  burnt,  but  excepted  lycanthropes,  who  were  to  be  burnt  alive  (Garinet,  pp. 
298-302).  In  the  controversy  about  the  reality  of  the  transformation,  Bodin 
supported  the  affimative,  and  Binsfcldius  the  negative  side.     There  is  a  form  of 

VOL.  I. — 1 


98  NATIONALISM   IX   EUROPE. 

The  last  class  of  anecdotes  I  shall  notice  is  that  which 
appears  to  have  grd^vn  out  of  the  Catholic  conception  of 
celibacy.  I  mean  the  accounts  of  the  influence  of  witchcraft 
upon  the  passions. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  conceive  the  order  of  ideas  that  pro- 
duced that  passionate  liorror  of  the  fair  sex  Avhich  is  such  a 
striking  characteristic  of  old  Catholic  theology.  Celibacy 
was  universally  regarded  as  the  highest  form  of  virtue,  and 
in  order  to  make  it  acceptable,  theologians  exhausted  all  the 
resources  of  their  eloquence  in  describing  the  iniquity  of 
those  whose  charms  had  rendered  it  so  rare.  Hence,  the 
long  and  fiery  disquisitions  on  the  unparalleled  malignity, 
the  inconceivable  subtlety,  the  frivolity,  the  unfaithfulness, 
the  unconquerably  evil  propensities  of  women,  which  were 
the  terror  of  one  age,  and  which  became  the  amusement  of 
the  next.  It  is  not  very  easy  to  read  these  diatribes  with 
perfect  gravity ;  but  they  acquire  a  certain  melancholy 
significance  from  the  fact,  that  the  teaching  they  represent 
had  probably  a  considerable  influence  in  predisposing  men  to 
believe  in  witches,  and  also  in  producing  the  extreme  callous- 
ness with  which  the  sufi*erings  of  the  victims  were  contem- 
plated. The  question  why  the  immense  majority  of  those 
who  were  accused  of  sorcery  should  be  women,  early  attract- 
ed attention ;  and  it  was  generally  answered,  not  by  the  sen- 
sibility of  their  nervous  constitution,  and  by  their  consequent 
liability  to  religous  monomania  and  epidemics,  but  by  the  in- 
herent wickedness  of  the  sex.     There  was  no  subject  on  which 

uonomania  under  whicli  men  believe  themselves  to  be  animals,  -nhich  is  doubt- 
less the  nucleus  around  which  the  system  was  formed — a  striking  instance  of 
the  development  of  the  miraculous.  See  also  Bourquclot,  La  Lycanthropic. 
Among  the  many  mad  notions  of  the  Abyssinians,  perhaps  the  maddest  is  their 
belief  that  blacksmiths  and  potters  can  change  themselves  into  hyaenas,  and 
;)usht  therefore  to  be  excluded  from  the  sacrament  (Hecker,  Epid.,  p.  120). 


MAGIC    AND   WITCIICKAFT.  99 

the  old  writers  expatiated  with  more  indignant  eloquence,  or 
with  more  copious  illustration.^  Cato,  they  said,  had  declared 
that  '  if  the  world  were  only  free  from  women,  men  would 
not  be  without  the  converse  of  the  gods.'  Cicero  had  said, 
that  '  many  motives  will  urge  men  to  one  crime,  but  that  one 
passion  will  impel  women  to  all  crimes.'  Solomon,  whose 
means  of  observation  had  in  this  respect  been  exceedingly 
extensive,  had  summed  up  his  experience  in  a  long  series  of 
the  most  crushing  apophthegms.  Chrysostom  only  inter- 
preted the  general  sentiment  of  the  Fathers,  when  he  pro- 
nounced woman  to  be  '  a  necessary  evil,  a  natural  temptation, 
a  desirable  calamity,  a  domestic  peril,  a  deadly  fascination, 
and  a  painted  ill.'  Doctor  after  doctor  echoed  the  same  lugu- 
brious strain,  ransacked  the  pages  of  history  for  illustrations 
of  the  enormities  of  the  sex,  and  marshalled  the  ecclesiastical 
testimonies  on  the  subject  with  the  most  imperturbable  ear- 
nestness and  solemnity.  Men  who  had  most  seriously  formed 
this  estimate  of  the  great  majority  of  women;  who  esteemed 
celibacy  the  highest  of  virtues,  and  every  temptation  to  aban- 
don it  the  direct  consequence  of  Satanic  presence  ;  came,  by 
a  very  natural  process,  to  regard  all  the  'phenomena  of  love' 
as  most  especially  under  the  influence  of  the  Devil.  Hence, 
those  wild  gleams  of  strange  and  grotesque  romance  which, 
from  time  to  time,  light  u])  the  literature  of  Avitchcraft. 
Incubi  and  succubi  were  for  ever  wandering  among  man- 
kind, alluring  by  more  than  human  charms  the  unwary  to 
their  destruction,  and  laying  plots  which  were  but  too  often 
successful  against  the  virtue  of  the  saints.  Sometimes,  the 
witches  kindled  in  the  monastic  breast  a  more  terrestrial  fire; 
and  men  tohl,  with  bated  breath,  how,  under  the  spell  of  a  vin- 
dictive woman,  four  successive  abbots  in  a  German  monastery 

^  Sep  edpacially  the  long  strange  chapter  ou  the  sul)ject  in  Spreuger. 


100  EATluXALISM   IX    EUEOPE. 

had  been  wasted  away  by  an  unholy  flame.^  Occasionally, 
with  a  still  more  refined  malice,  the  Evil  One  assumed  the  ap- 
pearance of  some  noted  divine,  in  order  to  bring  discredit 
upon  his  cnaracter ;  and  an  astonished  maiden  saw,  prostrate 
at  her  feet,  the  form  of  one  whom  she  kneiv  to  be  a  bishop,  and 
whom  she  believed  to  be  a  saint !  ^  ISTor  was  it  only  among 
those  who  were  bound  to  celibacy  that  the  deadly  influences 
were  exercised.  The  witches  were  continually  disturbing,  by 
their  machinations,  the  joys  of  wedlock ;  and  none  can  tell 
how  many  hundreds  have  died  in  agonies  for  afflicting  with 
barrenness  the  marriage  bed.^ 

^  Sprenger,  Pars  I.  Qufest.  vii.  At  the  request  of  St.  Serenns  and  St.  Eqni- 
tius,  the  angels  performed  oa  those  saints  a  counteracting  surgical  operation. 
(Nider,  Formic,  de  Mal.^  c.  v.) 

^  See  the  curious  story  of  St.  Sylvauus,  Bishop  of  Nazareth,  in  Sprenger 
(Pars  IT.  Queest.  i.  cap.  xi.).  The  Devil  not  only  assumed  the  appearance  of 
this  holy  man,  hi  order  to  pay  his  addresses  to  a  lady,  but  when  discovered, 
crept  under  a  bed,  suffered  himself  to  be  dragged  out,  and  declared  that  he  was 
the  veritable  bishop.  Happily,  after  a  tune,  a  miracle  was  wrought  which  clear- 
ed the  reputation  of  the  caluminated  prelate. 

^  As  few  people  realise  the  degi'ee  in  which  these  superstitions  were  en- 
couraged by  the  Church  which  claims  infallibility,  I  may  mention  that  thereaUty 
of  this  particular  crime  was  imphed,  and  its  perpetrators  anathematised,  by  the 
provincial  councils  or  synods  of  Troyes,  Lyons,  Milan,  Tours,  Bourges,  Nar- 
boune,  Ferrara,  St.  Malo,  Mont  Cassin,  Orleans,  and  Grenoble ;  by  the  rituals  of 
Autun,  Chartres,  Perigueux,  Atun,  Evreux,  Paris,  Angers,  Arras,  Chalons,  Bo- 
logna, Troyes,  Bourges,  Alet,  Beauvais,  Meaux,  Rheims,  &c. ;  and  by  the  decrees 
of  a  long  scries  of  bishops  (Thiers,  Sup.  JPop.,  tom.  iv.  ch.  vii.).  It  was  held,  as 
far  as  I  know,  without  a  smgle  exception,  by  all  the  mquisitors  who  presided  at 
the  witch -courts,  and  Sprenger  gives  a  long  account  of  the  methods  which  were 
generally  employed  in  convicting  those  who  were  accused  of  the  crime.  Mon- 
taigne appeal's  to  have  been  the  first  who  openly  denied  it,  ascribing  to  the  im- 
agination what  the  orthodox  ascribed  to  the  Devil ;  and  this  opinion  seems  soon 
to  have  become  a  characteristic  of  free-thinkers  in  Prance ;  for  Thiers  (who 
wrote  in  16'78)  complains  that  'Les  esprits  forts  et  les  libertins  qui  donneut  tout 
ii  la  nature,  et  qui  no  jugent  dcs  choses  que  par  la  raison,  ue  veulcnt  pas  so 
persuader  que  de  nouveaux-maries  puisscnt  par  Tartifice  et  la  malice  du  demon 
£.stre  empech^s  de  se  rendre  Ic  devoir  conjugal  (p  56Y) — a  very  wicked  incredu- 
ity — *  puisque  TEglise,  que  est  couduite  par  Ic  Saint-Esprit,  ct  (]ui  jiar  conso- 


MAGIC    AND   WITCITCEAFT.  101 

I  make  no  apology  for  having  dwelt  so  long  on  a  series 
of  doctrines  and  arguments  which  the  reader  will  probably 
deem  very  puerile,  because  their  importance  depends,  not  on 
their  intrinsic  value,  but  upon  their  relation  to  the  history  of 
opinions.  The  follies  of  the  j^ast,  when  they  were  adopted 
by  the  Avisest  men,  are  well  worthy  of  study ;  and,  in  the 
case  before  us,  they  furnish,  I  think,  an  invaluable  clue  to 
the  laws  of  intellectual  development.  It  is  often  and  truly 
said,  that  past  ages  were  pre-eminently  credulous,  as  com- 
pared with  our  own  ;  yet  the  ditference  is  not  so  much  in  the 
amount  of  the  credvdity,  as  in  the  direction  which  it  takes. 
Men  are  always  prepared  to  accept,  on  very  slight  evidence, 
what  they  believe  to  be  exceedingly  probable.  Their  meas- 
ure of  probability  ultimately  determines  the  details  of  their 
creed,  and  it  is  itself  perpetually  changing  under  the  influ- 
ence of  civilisation.  In  the  middle  ages,  and  in  the  six- 
teenth and  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
measure  of  probability  was  essentially  theological.  Men 
seemed  to  breathe  an  atmosphere  that  was  entirely  unsec- 
ular.  Their  intellectual  and  imaginative  conceptions  were 
all  coloured  by  theological  associations ;  and  they  accepted 
w^ith  cheerful  alacrity  any  anecdote  Avhich  harmonised  with 
their  habitual  meditations.  The  predisposition  to  believe  in 
the  miraculous  was  so  great,  that  it  constructed,  out  of  a 
small  germ  of  reality,  this  vast  and  complicated  system  of 
witchcraft ;  accummulated  around  it  an  immense  mass  of  the 
most  varied  and  circumstantial  evidence ;  persuaded  all  the 
ablest  men  for  many  centuries  that  it  was  incontestably 
true ;    conducted  it  unshaken  through  the  scrutiny  of  the 

quent  ne  peut  error,  rccouncit  qu'il  se  fait  par  ropcration  du  demon'  (p.  573). 
Tlie  same  writer  shows  that  the  belief  existed  in  the  Church  in  the  time  of  The- 
odousus  (p.  568).  The  last  sorcerer  who  was  burnt  in  France  perished  on  this 
charge  (Garinet,  p.  256). 


102  RATIONALISM   IN"   EUROPE. 

« 

law  courts  of  every  European  nation ;  and  consigned  tens 
of  thousands  of  victims  to  a  fearful  and  unlamented  death. 
There  was  not  the  smallest  desire  to  explain  away  or  soften 
down  miraculous  accounts,  in  order  to  make  them  harmonise 
with  experience,  because  the  minds  of  men  were  comj^letely 
imbued  with  an  order  of  ideas  that  had  no  connection  with 
experience.  If  we  could  i:>erceive  evil  spirits,  untrammelled 
by  the  laws  of  matter,  actually  hovering  around  us ;  if  we 
could  observe  them  watching  every  action  with  a  deadly 
malignity,  seeking  with  all  the  energies  of  superhuman 
power  the  misery  of  mankind,  and  darkening  with  their 
awful  aspect  every  sphere  in  which  we  move  ;  if  we  could 
see  the  angel  of  destruction  brandishing  the  sword  of  death 
over  the  Assyrian  hosts,  or  over  the  streets  of  Jerusalem ; 
and  could  behold  Satan  transporting  Christ  through  the  air, 
or  the  demoniacs  foaming  in  agony  beneath  his  grasp,  we 
should  probably  reason  on  these  matters  in  much  the  same 
spirit  as  the  theologians  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  cen- 
turies. Our  minds  would  be  so  pervaded  by  these  awful 
images,  that  they  would  form  a  measure  of  probability  en- 
tirely different  from  that  which  is  formed  by  the  experience 
of  life  ;  a  nervous  consciousness  of  the  continual  presence  of 
evil  spirits  would  accompany  us  for  ever,  and  would  for 
ever  predispose  us  to  discover  manifestations  of  their  power. 
The  foregoing  pages  will,  I  trust,  be  sufficient  to  eluci- 
date the  leading  causes  upon  which  witchcraft  dejDended. 
They  Avill  show  that  it  resulted,  not  from  accidental  circum- 
stances, individual  eccentricities,  or  even  scientific  ignorance, 
but  from  a  general  predisposition  to  see  Satanic  agency  in 
life.  It  grew  from,  and  it  reflected,  the  jDrevailing  modes 
of  religious  thought ;  and  it  declined  only  when  those  modes 
were  weakened  or  destroyed.     In  almost  every  period  of  the 


MAGIC   AND   AVITCIICEAFT.  103 

iniddle  ages,  there  had  been  a  few  men  who  m  some  degree 
dissented  from  the  common  siq^erstitions  ;  but  their  opinions 
were  deemed  entirely  incomprehensible,  and  they  exercised 
no  appreciable  influence  ii])on  their  contemporaries.  Indeed, 
their  doctrines,  being  generally  veiled  in  a  mystical  form, 
were  so  perverted  and  materialised,  tliat  they  not  nnfre- 
quently  increased  the  prevailing  gloom.  As  long  as  the 
general  credulity  continued,  as  long  as  the  minds. of  men 
were  directed  towards  the  miraculous  and  the  Satanic,  no 
efforts  could  eradicate  the  superstition.  In  such  a  condition 
of  thought,  men  would  always  be  more  inclined  to  accept 
than  to  reject  the  evidence.  They  would  refuse  to  scrutinise 
it  Avith  jealous  suspicion ;  and,  though  they  might  admit  the 
existence  of  some  imposture,  they  would  never  question  the 
substantial  justice  of  the  belief.  Not  until  the  predisposi- 
tion was  changed  ;  not  until  men  began  to  recoil  from  these 
narratives,  as  palpably  and  grossly  improbable ;  not  until  the 
sense  of  their  improbability  so  overj^owered  the  reverence 
for  authority,  as  to  make  them  seek  in  every  way  to  evade 
the  evidence,  and  to  make  them  disbelieve  it  even  when  they 
were  unable  to  disprove  it,  could  this  deadly  superstition  be 
rolled  away.  Its  decline  marks  the  rise,  and  its  destruction 
the  first  triumph,  of  the  spirit  of  rationalism  in  Europe. 

We  frequently  find,  in  the  Avritings  of  the  inquisitors, 
language  which  implies  that  a  certain  amount  of  scepticism 
was,  even  in  their  time,  smouldering  in  some  minds.  It  was 
not,  indeed,  suflicient  to  make  any  deej)  impression  on  public 
opinion.     It  is  identified  Avith  no  great  name,^  and  produced 

^  I  should,  perhaps,  make  one  exception  to  this  statement — Peter  of  Apono, 
a  very  famous  physician  and  philosopher  of  Padua,  who  died  in  1305.  He 
appears  to  have  entirely  denied  the  existence  of  demons  and  of  miracles ;  and 
to  have  attempted,  by  the  assistance  of  astrology,  to  construct  a  general  philos- 
ophy of  religion,  casting  th3  horoscope  of  eac!i  faith,  and  ascribing  its  rise 


104  RATIONALISM   IN    EUEOPE. 

no  great  book ;  but  it  was  yet  sufficiently  evident  to  elicit 
the  anxiety  of  some  theologians.  '  Those  men,'  vf  rote  Ger- 
son,  '  should  be  treated  with  scorn,  and  indeed  sternly  cor- 
rected, who  ridicule  theologians  whenever  they  speak  of 
demons,  or  attribute  to  demons  any  effects,  as  if  these  things 
were  entirely  fabulous.  This  error  has  arisen  among  some 
learned  men,  partly  through  want  of  faith,  and  partly 
through  weakness  and  imperfection  of  intellect  .... 
for,  as  Plato  says,  to  refer  everything  to  the  senses,  and  to  be 
incapable  of  turning  away  from  them,  is  the  greatest  impedi- 
ment to  truth.'  ^  Sprenger  also,  in  a  long  chaj^ter,  instructed 
theologians  how  to  meet  a  spirit  of  vague  sce23ticism  which 
had  arisen  among  certain  laymen ;  '  who  had,  indeed,  no  fixed 
method  of  reasoning,  but  were  blindly  groping  in  the  dark, 
touching  now  on  one  point,  and  now  on  another.'  An  assem- 
bly of  doctors  of  the  University  of  Cologne,^  which  was 
held  in  1487,  lamented,  and  severely  and  authoritatively  con- 
demned, a  still  more  startling  instance  of  rebellion,  arising 
from  a  quarter  in  which  it  was  least  to  be  expected.  When 
the  panic  was  raging  most  fiercely  in  the  diocese  of  Cologne, 
some  priests  had  attempted  to  allay  the  alarm  by  questioning 
the  reality  of  the  crime.  About  thirty  years  later,  Spina 
mentions ''  that,  in  some  places,  the  innumerable  executions 
had  aroused  a  spirit  of  most  acrimonious  opposition.    Indeed, 

and  destin)'  to  the  influence  of  the  stars.  He  was  a  disciple  of  Averroes — - 
perhaps  the  founder  of  Averroism  in  Italy — and  seems  to  have  formed  a 
school  at  Padua.  When  he  was  about  eighty,  he  was  accused  of  magic.  It 
was  said  that  he  had  acquired  the  knowledge  of  the  seven  liberal  arts  by 
Feven  familiar  spirits  whom  he  kept  confined  in  a  crystal ;  but  he  died  before 
the  trial  was  concluded,  so  the  inquisitors  were  obliged  to  content  them  selves 
by  burning  his  image.  lie  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  magiciana, 
Compare  Naude,  ApoL,  pp.  380-391 ;  Rcnan,  Averroes,  pp.  258,  259. 

'  I/all.  Mai,  vol.  ii.  p.  253.  ^  jf^n^  jf^i^  ^,ol_  i^  pp^  4G0-468. 

^  Vol.  ii.  pp.  191,  299,  300. 


MAGIC    AND    WITCHCRAFT.  105 

in  the  north  of  Italy,  a  positive  rebellion  had  broken  out, 
accompanied  by  a  tone  of  incredulity  which  that  theologian 
piteously  laments.  'Most  imprudent,  most  undevout,  and 
most  unfaithful  men  will  not  believe  the  things  they  ought 
to  believe  ;  and  wliat  is  still  more  lamentable,  they  exert  all 
their  influence  to  obstruct  those  who  are  destroying  the 
enemies  of  Christ.'  Such  a  conduct,  Spina  justly  observes, 
was  full  of  danger  for  those  who  were  guilty  of  it,  as  they 
might  themselves  be  justly  punished  for  conniving  at  the 
crime ;  and  it  was  a  distinct  reflection  upon  the  Church 
which  was  represented  by  the  inquisitors  and  upon  the 
Pope  by  whom  the  inquisitors  were  commissioned.  We  find, 
too,  the  clergy  claiming,  in  a  very  peremptory  tone,  the  su- 
preme jurisdiction  of  these  cases,  and  occasionally  alleging 
the  misconduct  of  lay  judges  who  had  sufiered  witches  to 
depart  unharmed.  All  this  scepticism,  however,  appears  to 
have  been  latent  and  undefined;  and  it  Avas  not  till  1563 
that  it  was  thrown  into  a  systematic  form  by  John  Wier, 
in  his  treatise  '  De  Proestigiis  Daemonum.' 

TVier  was  a  learned  and  able  physician  of  Cleves.  He 
was  convinced  as  a  doctor  that  many  of  the  victims  were 
simply  lunatics,  and,  being  a  very  humane  man,  was  greatly 
shocked  at  the  sufierings  they  endured.  lie  was  a  Protest- 
ant, and  therefore,  perhaps,  not  quite  as  much  trammelled 
by  tradition  as  some  of  his  contemporaries ;  though  in  the 
present  day  his  reverence  for  authority  would  be  regarded  as 
an  absolute  infatuation.  He  had  not  the  slightest  wish  to 
revolt  against  any  of  the  first  principles  of  the  popular 
teaching,  or  even  to  free  himself  from  the  prevailing  modes 
of  thought.  He  was  quite  convinced  that  the  world  was 
peopled  by  crowds  of  demons,  who  were  constantly  working 
miracles  among  mankind  ;  and  his  only  object  was  to  rccon- 


106  RATIONALISM   IN    EUEOPE. 

cile  his  sense  of  their  ubiquity,  with  his  persuasion  that 
some  of  the  phenomena  that  were  deemed  supernatural 
arose  from  disease.  He  was  of  opinion  that  all  the  witches 
were  labouring  under  the  delusions  of  the  Devil.  They  did 
not  make  an  unholy  compact,  or  ride  through  the  air,  or 
arouse  tempests,  or  produce  disease,  or  become  the  concvi- 
bines  of  Satan ;  but  the  Devil  had  entered  into  them,  and 
persuaded  them  that  they  had  done  these  things.  The  idea 
of  possession  was  thus  so  enlarged  as  to  absorb  ihe  idea  of 
witchcraft.  The  bewitched  j)erson  was  truly  afflicted  by 
the  Devil,  but  the  Devil  had  done  this  directly,  and  not  by 
the  intervention  of  a  witch,  and  had  then  thrown  suspicion 
upon  some  old  woman,  in  order  that  the  greatest  possible 
amount  of  suffering  might  be  produced.  Persons,  he  said, 
were  especially  liable  to  diabolical  possession,  when  their 
faculties  were  impaired  by  disease,  and  their  tempers  acidu- 
lated by  suffering.  In  an  eloquent  and  learned  chapter  on 
'  the  credulity  and  fragility  of  the  female  sex,'  he  showed, 
by  the  authority  of  the  Fathers  and  the  Gi-eek  philosophers, 
that  women  were  peculiarly  subject  to  evil  influences.  He 
also  showed  that  the  witches,  in  mental  and  moral  infirmities, 
were  pre-eminent  among  their  sex.  He  argued  that  the  word 
translated  witch,  in  the  Levitical  law,  may  be  translated 
poisoner;  and  that  the  patristic  notion  of  the  intercourse 
between  angels  and  the  antediluvian  women,  was  inadmissi- 
ble. The  gross  improbabilities  of  some  parts  of  the  pojnilar 
]>elief  were  clearly  exhibited,  and  illustrated  with  much 
unnecessary  learning ;  and  the  treatise  was  prefaced  by  an 
earnest  appeal  to  the  princes  of  Europe  to  arrest  the  effusion 
of  innocent  blood. 

The  scepticism  of  this  work  cannot  be  regarded  as  au- 
dacious.    In  fact,  Wier  stands  alone  in  the  history  of  witch- 


MAGIC    A>TD   WITCHCRxVFT.  107 

craft,  and  differs  essentially  from  all  the  later  writers  on  the 
subject.  He  forms  a  link  connecting  two  periods ;  he  Avas  as 
fully  pervaded  by  the  sense  of  the  miraculous  as  his  oppo- 
nents, and  he  never  dreamed  of  restricting  the  sphere  of  the 
supernatural.  Such  as  it  was,  however,  this  book  was  the 
first  attack  of  any  importance  on  the  received  opinions,  and 
excited  among  learned  men  considerable  attention.  Three 
editions  were  published,  in  a  few  years,  at  Basle  and  Amster- 
dam, which  were  then  the  centres  of  independent  thought. 
It  was  translated  into  French  in  1569.  It  was  supplemented 
by  a  treatise  '  De  Lamiis,'  and  by  a  very  curious  catalogue 
of  the  leaders,  and  description  of  the  organization,  of  hell.^ 
Shortly  after  the  publication  of  these  last  works,  a  book  ap- 
peared in  reply,  from  the  pen  of  Bodin,  the  famous  author 
of  the  '  Republic,'  and  one  of  the  most  distinguished  philoso- 
|)hers  in  Europe. 

Bodin  was  esteemed,  by  many  of  his  contemporaries,  the 
ablest  man  who  had  then  arisen  in  France ;  and  the  verdict 
has  been  but  little  qualified  by  later  writers.^     Amid  all  the 

^  '  Pseudomonarchia  Dasmonum ' — one  of  the  principal  sources  of  informa- 
tion about  this  subject.  He  gives  the  names  of  seventy-two  princes,  and  esti- 
mates their  subjects  at  7,405,926  devils.  It  is  not  quite  clear  how  much  he 
believed  on  the  subject. 

'  A  very  old  critic  and  opponent  of  his  views  on  witchcraft  quaintly  speaks 
of  him  as  '  Ce  premier  homme  de  la  France,  Jean  Bodin,  qui  apres  avoir  par 
une  merveilleuse  vivacite  d'esprit  accompagnee  d'un  jugement  solide  traicto 
toutes  les  choses  divines,  naturcUes  et  civiles,  se  fust  peut  estre  mescogncu  pour 
homme,  et  eust  estc  pris  infailliblcment  de  nous  pour  quelquo  intelligence  s'il 
n'cust  laissc  des  marques  et  vestiges  de  sou  humanite  dans  ccttc  demouomanie.' 
(Xaude,  Apol,  127  (1625).  Baylc  (Diet  Phil.)  pronoimced  Bodin  to  have  been 
'  one  of  the  chief  advocates  of  liberty  of  conscience  of  his  time.'  In  our  own 
day.  Buckle  (vol.  i.  p.  299)  has  placed  him  as  an  historian  above  Comines,  and 
on  a  level  with  Macchiavelli ;  and  Hallam,  speaking  of  the  '  Republic,'  says, 
'Bodin  possessed  a  highly  philosophical  mind,  united  with  the  most  ample 
stores  of  history  and  jurisprudence.  Xo  fonner  writer  on  political  philosophy 
had  been  either  so  comprehensive  in  his  scheme,  or  so  copious  in  his  knowledge  ; 


i08  NATIONALISM    IN    EUEOPE. 

distractions  of  a  dissipated,  and  an  intriguing  court,  and  all 
the  labours  of  a  judicial  position,  he  had  amassed  an  amount 
of  learning  so  vast  and  so  various,  as  to  place  him  in  the  very 
first  rank  of  the  scholars  of  his  nation.  He  has  also  the  far 
higher  merit  of  being  one  of  the  chief  founders  of  political 
philosophy  and  political  history,  and  of  having  anticipated 
on  these  subjects  many  of  the  conclusions  of  our  own  day. 
In  his  judicial  capacity  he  had  presided  at  some  trials  of 
witchcraft.  He  had  brought  all  the  resources  of  his  scholar- 
ship to  bear  upon  the  subject;  and  he  had  w^ritten  a  great 
part  of  his  'Demonomanie  des  Sorciers'  before  the  appear- 
ance of  the  last  work  of  Wier. 

The  'Demonomanie  des  Sorciers'  is  chiefly  an  appeal  to 
authority,  which  the  author  deemed  on  this  subject  so  unan- 
imous and  so  conclusive,  that  it  was  scarcely  possible  for 
any  sane  man  to  resist  it.  He  appealed  to  the  popular  belief 
in  all  countries,  in  all  ages,  and  in  all  religions.  He  cited 
the  opinions  of  an  immense  multitude  of  the  greatest  writers 
of  pagan  antiquity,  and  of  the  most  illustriousof  the  Fathers. 
He  shoAved  how  the  laws  of  all  nations  recognised  the  exist- 
ence of  witchcraft ;  and  he  collected  hundreds  of  cases  which 
had  been  investigated  before  the  tribunals  of  liis  own  or  of 
otlier  countries.  He  relates  with  the  most  minute  and  cir- 
cumstantial detail,  and  with  the  most  unfaltering  confidence, 
all  the  proceedings  at  the  witches'  Sabbath,  the  methods 
which  the  watches  employed  in  transporting  themselves 
through  the  air,  their  transformations,  their  carnal  inter- 
course with  the  Devil,  their  various  means  of  injuring  their 


none,  perhaps,  more  original,  more  iudependent  and  fearless  in  bis  enquiries. 
Tv\'o  men  alone,  indeed,  eould  be  compared  with  him — Aristotle  and  Machiavel.' 
[Hist  of  Lit.,  vol.  ii.  p.  G8.)  Dugald  Stewart  is  equally  encomiastic  {Disserta- 
tion, pp.  52-54). 


MAGIC    AND   WITCnCEAFT.  109 

enemies,  the  signs  tliat  lead  to  their  detection,  their  confes 
sions  wlien  condemned,  and  their  demeanour  at  the  stake. 
As  for  the  treatise  of  Wier,  he  could  scarcely  find  words  to 
express  the  astonishment  and  the  indignation  Avith  which  he 
liad  perused  it.  That  a  puny  doctor  should  have  dared  to 
oppose  himself  to  the  authority  of  all  ages;  that  he  should 
have  such  a  boundless  confidence  in  his  own  opinions,  and 
such  a  supreme  contempt  for  the  wisest  of  mankind,  as  to 
carp  and  cavil  in  a  sceptical  spirit  at  the  evidence  of  one  of 
the  most  notorious  of  existing  facts ;  this  was,  in  truth,  tlie 
very  climax  of  human  arrogance,  the  very  acme  of  human 
absurdity.  But,  extreme  as  was  the  audacity  thus  displayed, 
the  impiety  was  still  greater.  Wier  'had  armed  himself 
against  God.'  His  book  was  a  tissue  of  'horrible  blasphe- 
mies.' '  Xo  one  who  is  ever  so  little  touched  with  the  honour 
of  God,  could  read  such  blasphemies  without  a  righteous 
anger.'  'Not  only  had  he  dared  to  impugn  the  sentences  of 
so  many  upright  judges  ;  not  only  had  he  attempted  to  save 
those  whom  Scripture  and  the  voice  of  the  Church  had 
branded  as  the  worst  of  criminals ;  he  had  even  ventured  to 
publish  to  the  world  the  spells  and  incantations  he  had  learn- 
ed from  a  notorious   sorcerer.^     Who  could  reflect  without 

^  Cornelius  Agrippa,  -who  had  been  the  master  of  Wier.  He  was  advocate- 
general  at  Metz,  and  had  distinguished  himself  by  his  efforts  to  prevent  prosecu- 
tions for  witchcraft,  and  by  saving  the  life  of  a  peasant  woman  whom  Savin  tlic 
inquisitor  wished  to  burn.  He  was,  consequently,  generally  thought  to  be  in 
league  with  the  Devil ;  and  it  is  related  that,  on  his  death-bed,  he  drew  off  from 
his  neck  a  black  dog,  which  was  a  demon,  exclaiming  that  it  was  the  cause  of 
his  perdition  (Garinet,  pp.  121,  122).  In  his  early  days  he  had  studied  magic, 
and  had  apparently  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  rested  either  on  imposture  or 
on  a  superior  kjiowlcdge  of  the  laws  of  nature — a  conclusion  which  he  tried  to 
enforce  in  a  book  on  the  vanity  of  science.  He  was  imprisoned  for  a  year  at 
Brussels  on  the  charge  of  magic,  and  ceaselessly  calumniated  after  his  death. 
Before  "Wier,  probably  no  one  had  done  so  much  to  combat  the  persecution, 
3Jid  his  reputation  was  sacrificed  in  the  cause.     See  Plancy's  Did.  Infcrn.^  art. 


110  EATIONALISM  IN   EUROPE. 

consternation  on  the  future  of  Christendom  after  such  fearful 
disclosures  ?  Who  could  question  that  the  knowledge  thus 
disseminated  would  multiply  to  an  incalculable  extent  the 
number  of  witches,  Avould  vastly  increase  the  power  of  Satan, 
and  would  be  productive  of  countless  sufferings  to  the  inno- 
cent ?  Under  these  circumstances,  so  far  from  relaxing  the 
prosecutions  for  witchcraft  and  sorcery,  it  was  necessary  to 
continue  them  with  a  redoubled  energy ;  and  surely,  no  one 
could  be  the  object  of  a  more  just  suspicion  than  a  man  who 
had  written  so  impious  a  book,  and  who  had  shown  such 
acquaintance  with  the  secrets  of  so  impious  a  profession.  To 
pardon  those  whom  the  law  of  God  condemned  to  death,  was 
indeed  beyond  the  province  of  princes.  Those  who  were 
guilty  of  such  an  act  had  outraged  the  majesty  of  Heaven. 
They  had  virtually  repudiated  the  Divine  law,  and  j)estilence 
and  famine  would  inevitably  desolate  their  dominions.^  One 
fatal  example  there  had  been  of  a  king  tampering  with  his 
duty  in  this  respect.  Charles  IX.  had  spared  the  life  of  the 
famous  sorcerer  Trois  Echelles,  on  the  condition  of  his  in- 
forming against  his  colleagues ;  and  it  is  to  this  grievous  sin 
that  the  early  death  of  the  king  is  most  probably  to  be 
ascribed  :  '  For  the  word  of  God  is  very  certain,  that  he  who 
suffers  a  man  worthy  of  death  to  escape,  draws  the  punish- 
ment upon  himself,  as  the  prophet  said  to  king  Ahab,  that  he 
should  die  for  having  pardoned  a  man  worthy  of  death. 
For  no  one  had  ever  heard  of  pardon  being  accorded  to 


Agrippa,  and  Thiers'  SKjJcrst,  vol.  i.  pp.  142,  143.  Xaudc  has  also  devoted  a 
long  chapter  to  Agrippa.  Agrippa  had  not  the  good  fortune  to  please  any 
class  of  theologians.  Among  the  Catholics  he  was  regarded  with  extreme 
horror;  and  Calvin,  in  his  work  Dc  ScandaUs,  treats  him  as  one  of  the  chief 
contemners  of  the  Gospel. 

'  Pp.  217,  228.  '  r.  152. 


MAGIC    AND   WITCHCRAFT.  Ill 

Such  were  the  opinions  which  were  promulgated,  towards 
the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  by  one  of  the  most  ad- 
vanced intellects  of  one  of  tlie  leading  nations  of  Europe  ; 
promulgated,  too,  with  a  tone  of  confidence  and  of  triumph, 
that  shows  how  fully  the  writer  could  count  upon  the  sympa- 
thies of  his  readers.  The  '  Dcmonomanie  des  Sorciers '  ap- 
peared in  1581.  Only  seven  years  afterwards,  Montaigne 
published  the  first  great  sceptical  work  in  the  French  lan- 
guage ;  and,  among  the  many  subjects  on  which  his  scepti- 
cism Avas  turned,  witchcraft  occupied  a  prominent  place.  It 
would  be  scarcely  possible  to  conceive  a  more  striking  con- 
trast, than  his  treatment  of  it  presents  to  the  works  of  Bodin 
and  of  Wier.  The  vast  mass  of  authority  which  those  wri- 
ters loved  to  array,  and  by  which  they  shaped  the  Avhole 
course  of  their  reasoning,  is  calmly  and  unhesitatingly  dis- 
carded. The  passion  for  the  miraculous,  the  absorbing 
sense  of  diabolical  capacities,  have  all  vanished  like  a  dream. 
The  old  theological  measure  of  probability  has  completely 
disapjDcared,  and  is  replaced  by  a  shrewd  secular  common 
sense.*  The  statements  of  the  witches  were  pronounced  in- 
trinsically incredible.  The  dreams  of  a  disordered  imagina- 
tion, or  the  terrors  of  the  rack,  would  account  for  many  of 
them ;  but  even  when  it  is  impossible  to  explain  away  the 
evidence,  it  is  cjuite  unnecessary  to  believe  it.  'There  are,' 
he  said,  '  proofs  and  arguments  that  are  founded  on  expe- 
rience and  facts.  I  do  not  pretend  to  unravel  them.  I  often 
cut  them,  as  Alexander  did  the  knot.  After  all,  it  is  setting 
a  high  value  upon  our  opinions,  to  roast  men  alive  on  ac- 
count of  them.'  We  may  not  be  able  to  discover  an  ade- 
quate solution  of  some  statements  on  the  subject,  but  we 
should  consider — and  he  Iiere  anticipated  a  mode  of  argu- 
ment which  Avas  destined  lono;  afterwards  to  assume  a  most 


112  KATIONALISM   IN    EUROPE. 

prominent  place  in  theological  controversy — that  it  is  far 
more  j^robable  that  our  senses  should  deceive  us,  than  that 
an  old  woman  should  be  carried  up  a  chimney  on  a  broom- 
stick; and  that  it  is  far  less  astonishing  that  Avitnesses 
should  lie,  than  that  witches  should  perform  the  acts  that 
were  alleged/ 

It  has  been  justly  remarked  by  Malebranche,  that  Mon- 
taigne is  an  example  of  a  writer  who  had  no  pretensions  to 
be  a  great  reasoner,  but  who  nevertheless  exercised  a  most 
profound  and  general  influence  upon  the  oj^inions  of  man- 
kind. It  is  not,  I  think,  difiicult  to  discover  the  explanation 
of  the  fact.  In  an  age  which  Avas  still  spell-bound  by  the 
fascinations  of  the  past,  he  applied  to  every  question  a  judg- 
ment entirely  unclouded  by  the  imaginations  of  theologians, 
and  unshackled  by  the  dictates  of  authority.  His  originality 
consists,  not  so  much  in  his  definite  opinions  or  in  his  argu- 
ments, as  in  the  general  tone  and  character  of  his  mind.  He 
was  the  first  French  author  who  had  entirely  emancipated 
himself  from  the  retrospective  habits  of  thought  that  had  so 
long  been  uniA'ersal ;  who  ventured  to  judge  all  questio'^is  by 
a  secular  standard,  by  the  light  of  common  sense,  by  the 
measure  of  probability  which  is  furnished  by  daily  expe- 
rience. He  was,  no  doubt,  perfectly  aware  that  '  the  laws 
of  Plato,  of  the  twelve  tables,  of  the  consuls,  of  the  emper- 
ors, and  of  all  nations  and  legislators — Persian,  Hebrew, 
Greek,  Latin,  German,  French,  Italian,  Spanish,  English — 
had  decreed  capital  penalties  against  sorcerers;'  he  knew 
that  '  prophets,  theologians,  doctors,  judges,  and  magistrates, 
had  elucidated  the  reality  of  the  crime  by  many  thousand 
violent  presumptions,  accusations,  testimonies,  convictions, 

^  Liv.  iii.  c.  11. 


MAGIC    AND    VVITCHCEAFT.  113 

repentances  and  voluntary  confessions,  persisted  in  to  death ;' ' 
but  lie  was  also  sensible  of  tlie  extreme  fallibility  of  the  hu- 
man judgment ;  of  the  facility  with  which  the  mind  discov- 
ers, in  the  phenomena  of  history,  a  reflection  of  its  precon- 
ceived notions  ;  and  of  the  rapidity  with  which  systems  of 
fiction  are  formed  in  a  credulous  and  undiscriininating  age. 
While  Catholics,  Protestants,  and  Deists  were  vying  with 
each  other  in  their  adoration  of  the  past ;  while  the  ambition 
of  every  scholar  and  of  every  theologian  was  to  form  around 
his  mind  an  atmosphere  of  thought  that  bore  no  relation  to 
the  world  that  was  about  him ;  while  knowledge  was  made 
the  bond-slave  of  credulity,  and  those  whose  intellects  were 
most  shackled  by  prejudice  were  regarded  as  the  wisest  of 
mankind,  it  was  the  merit  of  Montaigne  to  rise,  by  the  force 
of  his  masculine  genius,  into  the  clear  world  of  reality ;  to 
judge  the  opinions  of  his  age  with  an  intellect  that  was 
invigorated  but  not  enslaved  by  knowledge  ;  and  to  contem- 
plate the  systems  of  the  past,  without  being  dazzled  by  the 
reverence  that  had  surrounded  them.  He  looked  down  upon 
the  broad  field  of  history,  upon  its  clashing  enthusiasms,  its 
discordant  systems,  the  ebb  and  flow  of  its  ever-changing 
belief,  and  he  drew  from  the  conteraj^lation  a  lesson  widely 
different  from  his  contemporaries.  He  did  not,  it  is  true, 
fully  recognise  those  moral  principles  which  shine  with  an 
unchanging  splendour  above  the  fluctuations  of  sj)eculative 
opinions ;  he  did  not  discover  tlie  great  laws  of  eternal  de- 
velopment which  preside  over  and  direct  the  progress  ol^ 
belief,  infuse  order  into  the  seeming  chaos,  and  reveal  in 
every  apparent  aberration  the  traces  of  a  superintending 
Providence ;  but  lie,  at  least,  obtained  an  intense  and  real- 

'  Bodiu,  p.  252. 

VOL.  I. — 8 


114  EATIOXALISM   IN    EUKOPE. 

ised  perception  of  the  fallibility  of  the  human  intellect ;  a 
keen  sense  of  the  absurdity  of  an  absolute  deference  to  the 
past,  and  of  the  danger  of  punishing  men  with  death  on 
account  of  opinions  concerning  which  we  can  have  so  little 
assurance.  These  things  led  him  to  suspect  that  witchcraft 
might  be  a  delusion.  The  bent  and  character  of  his  mind 
led  him  to  believe  that  Avitchcraft  was  grossly  improbable. 
He  was  the  first  great  representative  of  the  modern  secular 
and  rationalistic  spirit.  By  extricating  his  mind  from  the 
trammels  of  the  past,  he  had  learned  to  judge  the  narratives 
of  diabolical  intervention  by  a  standard  and  with  a  spirit 
that  had  been  long  unknown.  The  predisposition  of  the  old 
theologians  had  been  to  believe  that  the  phenomena  of  witch- 
craft were  all  produced  by  the  Devil ;  and,  when  some  mani- 
fest signs  of  madness  or  of  imposture  were  exhibited,  they 
attempted  to  accommodate  them  to  their  supernatural  theory. 
The  strong  predisposition  of  Montaigne  was  to  regard  witch- 
craft as  the  result  of  natural  causes  ;  and,  therefore,  though 
he  did  not  attempt  to  explain  all  the  statements  which  he 
had  heard,  he  was  convinced  that  no  conceivable  improba- 
bility could  be  as  great  as  that  which  would  be  involved  in 
their  reception.  This  was  not  the  happy  guess  of  ignorance. 
It  was  the  direct  result  of  a  mode  of  thought  which  he  ap- 
plied to  all  theological  questions.  Fifty  years  earlier,  a  book 
embodying  such  conceptions  would  have  appeared  entirely 
incompreliensible,  and  its  author  would  perhaps  have,  been 
burnt.  At  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  minds  of 
men  Vv-ere  prepared  for  its  reception,  and  it  flashed  like  a 
revelation  upon  Fi-ance.  From  the  publication  of  the  essays 
of  jMontaigne,  we  may  date  the  influence  of  that  gifted  and 
ever  enlarging  rationalistic  school,  who  gradually  effected 
the  destruction  of  tlie  belief  in  witchcraft,  not  by  refuting 


MAGIC   AND   WITCIICEAFT.  115 

or  explaining  its  evidence,  but  simply  by  making  men  more 
and  more  sensible  of  its  intrinsic  absurdity. 

Thirteen  years  after  Montaigne,  Charron  wrote  his  famous 
treatise  on  '  Wisdom.'  In  this  work  he  systematised  many 
of  the  opinions  of  Montaigne ;  but  exhibited  far  less  genius 
and  originality  than  his  predecessor.  Like  Montaigne,  he 
looked  with  aversion  on  the  miraculous ;  but,  like  Montaigne, 
his  scepticism  arose,  not  from  any  formal  examination  of  evi- 
dence, but  from  a  deep  sense  of  the  antecedent  improbability. 
That  which  Montaigne  had  thrown  into  the  form  of  strong 
doubt,  Charron  almost  threw  into  the  form  of  a  denial.  All 
through  the  seventeenth  century,  the  same  modes  of  thought 
continued,  slowly  but  steadily  sapping  the  old  belief;  but, 
though  the  industry  of  modern  antiquarians  has  exhumed 
two  or  three  obscure  works  that  were  published  on  the  subject,^ 
those  works  never  seem  to  have  attracted  any  serious  atten- 
tion, or  to  have  had  any  appreciable  influence  in  accelerating 
tlie  movement.  It  presents  a  spectacle,  not  of  argument  or 
of  conflict,  but  of  a  silent  evanescence  and  decay.  The  priests 
continued  to  exorcise  the  possessed,  to  prosecute  witches,  and 
to  anathematise  as  infidels  all  who  questioned  the  crime. 
Many  of  the  hiAvyers,  reverting  to  the  innumerable  enact- 
nients  in  the  hiAV  books,  and  to  the   countless  occasions  on 

^  Maury,  pp.  221,  222,  The  principal  of  those  writers  was  Xaude,  whose 
Apologie  pour  les  Grands  Homines  soicpfomiez  de  Magie  contains  much  curi- 
ous historical  information  in  an  extremely  tiresome  form.  Naude  also  wrote 
an  exposure  of  the  Rosicrucians,  and  a  political  work  on  Coups  d''Etat^  em- 
b'^/dying  the  principles  of  Macchiavelli.  He  was  the  first  librarian  of  the 
Mii/.arin  library,  in  the  foundation  of  which  he  had  a  considerable  part. 
Bayle  {Fensees  Diverscs,  §  ccxli.)  calls  him  '  L'homme  de  France  qui  avoit  le 
plus  de  lecture.'  He  i^  said  to  have  reconstructed  some  of  the  dances  of  the 
ancients,  and  to  have  executed  them  in  person  before  Queen  Christina,  in  Swe- 
den (Magtiin,  Origincs  dai  Tlu'Cdre^  torn.  i.  p.  113).  The  Apologie  was  answer- 
ed by  a  Capuchin  named  D'Autun,  in  a  ponderous  work  called  L IncrcduliU 
S<;avanl€. 


116  EATIOXALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

which  the  subject  had  been  investigated  by  the  tribunals, 
maintained  the  belief  with  equal  pertinacity;  but  outside 
these  retrospective  classes,  the  sense  of  the  improbability  of 
witchcraft  became  continually  stronger,  till  any  anecdote 
which  involved  the  intervention  of  the  Devil  was  on  that  ac- 
count generally  ridiculed.  This  spirit  was  exhibited  especial- 
ly among  those  whose  habits  of  thought  were  mcst  secular, 
and  whose  minds  were  least  governed  by  authority.^  Some 
great  scholars  and  writers,  who  were  fully  sensible  of  the  im- 
probability of  the  belief,  yet  regarded  the  evidence  as  utc- 
sistible,  and  looked  upon  the  subject  with  a  perplexed  and 
timid  suspension  of  judgment.  La  Bruyere  said  that  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  magic  rests  seem  vague,  uncertain,  and  vision- 
ary ;  but  that  many  embarrassing  facts  had  been  attested  by 
credible  eye-witnesses ;  that  it  appeared  equally  difficult  to 
admit  or  to  deny  them;  and  that  it  was  better  to  take  a  cen- 
tral position  between  the  credulous  who  admitted  all,  and  the 
free-thinkers  who  rejected  all.^  Even  Bayle  seems  to  have 
looked  upon  it  in  a  similar  spirit.^  Descartes,  though  he  did 
not,  as  far  as  lam  aware,  ever  refer  directly  to  the  subject, 
probably  exercised  a  considerable  influence  upon  it,  for  the 
tendency  of  his  teaching  was  to  emancipate  the  mind  from 
the  power  of  tradition,  to  secularise  philosophy,  and  to  de- 
stroy the  material  notions  that  had  long  been  associated  with 
spirits.     Malebranche  mentions  that  in  his  time  some  of  the 

-  '  Ce  furent  les  esprits  forts  du  commeucement  du  dix-septieme  sieclc  qui 
s'efForci^rent  les  premiers  de  combattre  le  prcguge  regnant  dc  defendrc  de 
raallieureux  fous  ou  d'indiscrets  chercheurs  contre  les  tribunaux,  II  fallait 
pour  cola  du  courage,  car  on  risquait,  en  cherchant  h  sauver  la  tete  du  pre- 
venu,  de  passer  soi-meme  pour  un  affide  du  diable,  ou  ce  que  ne  valait  pas 
naieux,  pour  un  incredule.  Les  libres  penseurs,  les  libertius  comrae  on  lea 
appelait  alors,  n'avaient  que  peu  de  credit.'     (Maury,  p.  22 1.) 

'  See  the  passage  in  Maury,  p.  219.  '  Ibid.,  p.  220. 


MAGIC   AND   WITCHCKAFT.  117 

parliaments  had  ceased  to  burn  witches,  and  that  within 
their  jurisdiction  the  number  of  witches  had  declined.  He 
inferred  from  this  that  the  contagious  power  of  imagination 
had  created  many  of  the  phenomena.  He  analysed,  with 
much  acuteness,  the  process  of  thought  which  produced  ly- 
canthropy;  but,  being  a  priest,  he  found  it  necessary  to  add, 
that  real  sorcerers  should  undoubtedly  be  put  to  death. ^ 
Voltaire  treated  the  whole  subject  with  a  scornful  ridicule ; 
observed  that,  since  there  had  been  philosophers  in  France, 
w^itches  had  become  proportionately  rare ;  and  summed  uj^ 
the  ecclesiastical  authorities  for  the  belief  as  emphatically 
as  Sprenger  or  Spina,  but  with  a  very  different  object.^ 

In  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  civil 
power  uniformly  exerted  its  energies  for  the  destruction  of 
witches.  It  was  between  the  publication  of  the  works  of 
Montaigne  and  of  Charron,  that  Boguet  was  presiding  at 
the  tribunal  of  St.  Claude,  where  he  is  said  to  have  burnt 
600  persons,  chiefly  for  lycanthropy.  A  few  years  later,  the 
fifty  executions  at  Douay,  which  I  have  already  mentioned, 
took  place  ;  and,  in  1642,  Cardinal  Mazarin  wrote  a  letter  to 
the  bishop  of  Evreux,  congratulating  him  warmly  on  the 
successful  zeal  he  had  manifested  on  the  subject.^  Towards 
the  middle  of  the  century,  however,  the  growing  incredulity 
had  reached  those  in  power ;  the  prosecutions  for  witchcraft 
became  more  rare  and  languid  ;  and,  in  1G72,  Colbert  direct- 

'  Recherche  de  la  Vcrite,  liv.  ii.  p.  3,  c.  6. 

^  He  said :  '  Tous  les  peres  de  I'Eglise  sans  exception  crurent  au  pouvoir 
de  la  magie.  L'Eglise  condamna  toujours  la  magic,  mais  clle  y  crut  toujours. 
Elle  n'excommunia  point  les  sorciers  comme  des  fous  qui  etaient  trompes,  mais 
comme  des  hommes  qui  etaient  rcellement  en  commerce  avec  les  diables.' 
{Diet.  Phil.,  art.  Superstitloii.)  This  I  believe  to  be  quite  true,  but  it  was  a 
striking  sign  of  the  times,  tliat  an  opponent  of  magic  could  say  so  without 
ruining  his  cause. 

^  Garinet,  p.  328. 


118  RATIOXALISM   IX    EUROPE. 

ed  the  magistrates  to  receive  no  accusations  of  sorcery,  and 
commuted  in  many  cases  the  capital  punishment  for  the 
crime  into  a  sentence  of  banishment.  It  was  when  some  ol 
these  commutations  had  been  made,  that  the  Parliament  of 
Rouen  drew  up  an  extremely  remarkable  address  to  the  king, 
protesting,  in  a  strain  of  high  religious  fervour,  against  the 
indulgence  as  directly  contrary  to  the  Word  of  God,  to  aU 
the  precedents  of  French  law,  and  to  all  the  traditions  ot 
the  Christian  religion.^  After  this  time  but  few  trials  foi 
sorcery  took  place — tliat  of  the  Marshal  of  Luxembourg,  in 
1681,  was,  perhaps,  the  most  remarkable — for  the  scej^ticism 
on  the  subject  had  already  become  very  marked;  and  in  the 
last  twenty  years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  only  seven 
sorcerers  seem  to  have  been  burnt  in  France.  Still  later,  in 
1718,  the  Parliament  of  Bordeaux  burnt  a  man  upon  this 
charge.  After  this  period  there  Avere,  indeed,  one  or  two 
trials,  but  the  prisoners  were  acquitted;  the  star  of  Voltaire 
had  risen  above  the  horizon,  and  the  unsparing  ridicule 
which  his  followers  cast  upon  every  anecdote  of  witches,  in- 
timidated those  who  did  not  share  in  the  incredulity.  The 
formularies  for  exorcism  still  continued,  as  they  continue  to 
the  present  day,  in  Roman  Catholic  rituals,  and  they  Avere 
frequently  employed  all  through  the  eighteenth  century ;  but 
the  more  educated  members  of  the  clergy  for  the  most  j^art 
allowed  the  subject  to  fall  into  neglect,  and  discouraged  the 
attempts  of  some  of  the  order  to  revive  it.  Those  who  still 
clung  to  the  traditions  of  the  past  must  have  found  much 
difficulty  in  accounting  for  the  progress  of  the  movement. 
That  Satan  should  occupy  such  an  extremely  small  place  iu 
(he  minds  of  men  was  very  lamentable,  but  that  the  miraci- 

*  Garinct,  pp.  SoY,  344. 


MAGIC    AND    WITCHCRAFT.  119 

Ions  signs  of  liis  presence  should  have  so  completely  disap- 
peared, was  exceedingly  perplexing.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  present  century,  the  Abbe  Fiard  published  a  work  de- 
signed to  explain  the  difficulty.  He  showed  that  the  philoso- 
phers and  revolutionists  of  the  last  century  were  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  old  sorcerers,  that  they  acted  under  the 
direct  inspiration  of  Satan,  and  that  their  success  was  en- 
tirely due  to  Satanic  power.  Lest,  however,  it  should  be 
said  that  tliis  represented  rather  the  moral  than  the  miracu- 
lous influence  of  the  Evil  One,  he  added  that  many  great  and 
startling  miracles  had  accompanied  the  philosophic  move- 
ment, and  that  these  miracles  had  not  even  yet  ceased.  The 
cures  of  Mesmer  and  the  prophecies  of  Cagliostro  should 
both  be  ascribed  to  supernatural  agency ;  but  the  most 
startling  of  all  the  signs  of  diabolical  presence  was  the  ever- 
increasing  popularity  of  ventriloquism.  On  this  last  subject, 
we  are  happily  not  left  to  our  own  unassisted  conjectures, 
for  some  learned  divines  of  the  fourteenth  century  had  solemn- 
ly determined  that  man  Avas  designed  to  speak  by  his  mouth  ; 
and  that,  whenever  he  sjjoke  in  any  other  way,  he  did  so  by 
the  assistance  of  the  Devih^ 

The  history  of  Avitchcraft  in  Protestant  countries  differs 
so  little  from  its  history  in  Catholic  ones,  that  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  dwell  upon  it  at  much  length.  In  both  cases,  a  ten- 
dency towards  the  miraculous  was  the  cause  of  the  belief,* 
and  the  degree  of  religious  terrorism  regulated  the  intensity 
of  the  persecution.  In  both  cases,  too,  the  rise  and  progress 
of  a  rationalistic  spirit  were  the  origin  and  the  measure  of 
its  decline.  In  England,  there  was  no  regular  enactment 
against  sorcery  till  1541,  when  the  nation  was  convulsed  by 

'  Gaviuct,  p.  280. 


120  EATIOXALISM   IN    EUROPE. 

the  first  paroxysms  of  the  Reformation.  The  crime  had  in- 
deed been  known  at  an  earlier  period,  and  a  few  executions 
had  taken  place,  but  they  were  very  rare ;  and,  in  producing 
them,  other  motives  seem  to  hav6  been  generally  mixed 
with  superstition.  Joan  of  Arc,  the  noblest  of  all  the  victims 
of  the  belief,  perished  by  English  hands,  though  on  French 
soil,  and  under  the  sentence  of  a  French  bishop.  Some  years 
after,  the  Duchess  of  Gloucester,  having  been  accused  by  the 
Cardinal  of  Beaufort  of  attempting  the  king's  life  by  sorcery, 
was  compelled  to  do  penance,  while  two  of  her  servants  were 
executed.  A  few  other  cases  have  come  down  to  us ;  but, 
although  the  extreme  imperfection  of  the  old  criminal  registers 
renders  it  very  probable  that  there  were  others  which  are 
forgotten,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  superstition  was 
much  less  prominent  in  England  than  on  the  Continent.' 
Owing  partly  to  its  insular  position,  and  partly  to  the  intense 
political  life  that  from  the  earliest  period  animated  the 
people,  there  was  formed  in  England  a  fearless  and  self- 
reliant  type  of  character  essentially  distinct  from  that  which 
was  common  in  Europe,  eminently  free  from  morbid  and 
superstitious  terrors,  and  averse  to  the  more  depressing  aspects 

^  The  most  complete  authority  on  this  subject  is  the  chronological  table  of 
facts  in  Hutchinson's  Essay  on  Witchcraft  (1'718).  Hutchinson,  who  was  a 
very  scrupulous  writer,  restricted  himself  for  the  most  part  to  cases  of  which 
he  had  learned  precise  particulars,  and  he  carefully  gives  his  authorities.  The 
number  of  executions  he  recounts  as  having  taken  place  in  250  years,  amounts 
to  many  thousands.  Of  these  only  about  140  were  in  England.  This,  of 
course,  excludes  those  who  were  drowned  or  mobbed  to  death  during  the  trial, 
and  those  who  were  sentenced  to  other  than  capital  punishments.  All  the 
other  writers  I  have  seen  place  the  English  executions  far  higher ;  and  it 
seems,  I  think,  certain  that  some  executions  escaped  the  notice  of  Hutchinson, 
whose  eslimate  is,  however,  probably  much  nearer  the  truth  than  those  of  most 
writers.  See  also  Wright's  Sorcery  ;  and  an  article  from  the  Foreign  Review 
in  'A  Collection  of  Curious  Tracts  on  Witchcraft,' reprinted  in  1838.  It  if 
quite  impossible  to  arrive  at  anything  like  precision  on  this  subject. 


MAGIC    AND   WITCHCRAFT.  121 

of  religion.  It  was  natural,  however,  that  amid  the  conflicts 
of  the  Reformation,  some  of  the  darker  superstitions  should, 
arise ;  and.  we  accordingly  find  Cranmer,  in  one  of  his  articles 
of  visitation,  directing  his  clergy  to  seek  for  'any  that  use 
cliarms,  sorcery,  enchantments,  witchcraft,  soothsaying,  or 
any  like  craft  invented,  by  the  Devil.'  We  find  also  a  very 
few  executions  under  Henry  VIII. ;  but  in  the  following 
reign  the  law  on  the  subject  was  repealed,  and  was  not 
renewed  till  the  accession  of  Elizabeth.^  New  laws  were  then 
made,  which  were  executed  with  severity ;  and  Jewell,  when 
preaching  before  the  queen,  adverting  to  the  increase  of 
Avitches,  expressed  a  hope  that  the  penalties  might  be  still 
more  rigidly  enforced.  '  May  it  please  your  grace,'  he  added, 
'  to  understand  that  witches  and  sorcerers  Avithin  these  few 
years  are  marvellously  increased  within  your  grace's  realm. 
Your  grace's  subjects  pine  away  even  unto  the  death ;  their 
colour  fadeth,  their  flesh  rotteth,  their  speech  is  benumbed, 
their  senses  are  bereft.  ...  I  pray  God  they  never 
practise  further  than  upon  the  subject.'  ^  On  the  whole, 
however,  these  laws  were  far  milder  than  those  on  the  Con- 
tinent. For  the  first  conviction,  witches  who  were  not 
shown  to  have  destroyed  others  by  their  incantations  were 
only  punished  by  the  jDillory  and  by  imprisonment,  while 
those  who  were  condemned  to  death  perished  by  the  galloAvs 
instead  of  the  stake.     Besides  this,  torture,  Avhicli  had  done 


*  The  repeal  was  probably  owing  to  the  fact  that  witchcraft  and  pulling 
down  crosses  were  combined  together;  and  the  law  had,  therefore,  a  Popish 
appearance. 

^  Sermons  (Parker  Society),  p.  1028.  Strype  ascribes  to  this  sermon  the 
law  which  was  passed  the  following  year  {Annals  of  the  He/.,  vol.  i.  p.  11). 
The  multitude  of  witches  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  (which 
Strype  notices)  was  the  obvious  consequence  of  the  terrorism  of  the  preceding 
reign,  and  of  the  religious  changes  acting  in  the  way  I  have  already  described. 


122  EATIONAI.ISM   i:-7    EUECsPE. 

SO  much  to  multiply  tlie  evklencG,  had  alv^'ays  been  illegal  iu 
England,  and  the  witch-finders  were  compelled  to  content 
themselves  with  pricking  their  victims  all  over  in  hopes  of 
discovering  the  insensible  spot/  Avith  throwing  them  into  the 
water  to  ascertain  whether  they  would  sink  or  swim,  and 
with  keeping  them  during  several  successive  nights  without 
sleep,  in  order  to  compel  them  to  confess.  These  three 
methods  were  habitually  employed  with  signal  success ; 
many  women  were  in  consequence  condemned,  and  a  con- 
siderable proportion  of  them  were  hung.  But  such  scenes 
did  not  take  place  without  one  noble  protest.  A  layman 
named  Keginald  Scott  j^ublished,  in  1584,  his  'Discovery  of 
Witchcraft,'  in  which  he  unmasked  the  imj)osture  and  the 
delusion  of  the  system  with  a  boldness  that  no  previous 
writer  had  approached,  and  with  an  ability  which  few  sub- 
sequent writers  have  equalled.  Keenly,  eloquently,  and  un- 
flinchingly, he  exposed  the  atrocious  torments  by  which  con- 
fessions were  extorted,  the  laxity  and  injustice  of  the  manner 
in  whicli  evidence  was  collected,  the  egregious  absurdities 
that  filled  the  writings  of  the  inquisitors,  the  juggling  tricks 
that  were  ascribed  to  the  Devil,  and  the  childish  folly  of  the 
magical  charms.  He  also  availed  himself  in  a  very  dexterous 
manner  of  the  strong  Protestant  feeling,  in  order  to  discredit 
statements  that  emanated  from  the  Inquisition.  If  the  ques- 
tion was  to  be  determined  by  argument,  if  it  depended  simply 
or  mainly  upon  the  ability  or  learning  of  the  controversialists, 

^  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  anaesthesia  is  a  recognised  symptom  of  some 
of  the  epidemic  forms  of  madness.  Speaking  of  that  of  Morziucs,  Dr.  Con- 
stanssays:  'L'anesthesie  ne  fait  jamais  defaut.  J'ai  pu  pincer,  piquer  avec 
ime  cpiugle  Ics  maladcs,  cnfoncer  cette  epingle  sous  los  onglcs  ou  de  toutc  sa 
longueur  dans  Ics  bras,  les  jambes  ou  surloute  autre  partie,  sans  provoquer  I'ap- 
parence  d'une  sensation  douleureuse.'  [Epidemie  d\f{i/s(cro-Demo7iopat/ne  en 
18G1,  p.  G3.) 


MAGIC    AND   WITCHCRAFT.  123 

tlie  treatise  of  Scott  would  have  had  a  po\yorful  effect ;  for  it 
was  by  far  the  ablest  attack  on  the  prevailing  superstition 
that  had  ever  appeared,  and  it  was  written  in  the  most 
popular  style.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  exercised  no  apprecia- 
ble influence.  Witchcraft  depended  upon  general  causes, 
and  represented  the  prevailing  modes  of  religious  thought. 
It  was  therefore  entirely  miaffected  by  the  attempted  refuta- 
tion, and  Avhen  James  I.  mounted  the  throne,  he  found  the 
nation  perfectly  prepared  to  second  him  in  his  zeal  against 
the  witches. 

James,  although  he  hated  the  puritans,  had  caught  in 
Scotland  much  of  the  tone  of  thought  concerning  Satanic 
power  which  the  Puritans  had  always  encouraged,  and  which 
was  exhibited  to  the  highest  perfection  in  the  Scottish  mind. 
He  was  continually  haunted  by  the  subject.  He  had  himself 
vrritten  a  dialogue  upon  it ;  he  had  confidently  ascribed  his 
stormy  passage  on  his  return  from  Denmark  to  the  machina- 
tions of  the  Avitches,^  and  he  boasted  that  the  Devil  regarded 
him  as  the  most  formidable  of  opponents.  Soon  after  his 
accession  to  the  throne  of  England,  a  law  was  enacted  which 

^  This  storm  was  the  origin  of  one  of  the  most  horrible  of  the  many  horri- 
ble Scotch  trials  on  record.  One  Dr.  Fian  was  suspected  of  having  aroused 
the  wind,  and  a  confession  was  wrung  from  him  by  torture,  which,  however,  he 
almost  immediately  afterwards  retracted.  Every  form  of  torture  was  in  vain 
employed  to  vanquish  his  obduracy.  The  bones  of  his  legs  were  broken  into 
small  pieces  in  the  boot.  All  the  torments  that  Scottish  law  knew  of  were 
successively  applied.  At  last,  the  king  (who  personally  presided  over  the  tor- 
tures) suggested  a  new  and  more  horrible  device.  The  prisoner,  who  had  been 
removed  during  the  deliberation,  was  brought  in,  and  (I  quote  the  contem- 
porary narrative) '  his  nailcs  upon  all  his  fingers  were  riven  and  pulled  off  witli 
an  instrument,  called  in  Scottish  a  turkas,  which  in  England  wee  call  a  payrc 
of  pincers,  and  under  evcrie  nayle  there  was  thrust  in  two  needels  over,  even 
up  to  the  heads.'  However,  notwithstanding  all  tliis, '  so  deeply  had  the  devil 
entered  into  his  heart,  that  hee  utterly  denied  all  that  w^hich  he  before  avouch- 
ed,' and  he  was  burnt  unconfessed.  (See  a  rare  black-letter  tract,  reprinted 
in  Pitcairn's  Criminal  Trials  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.  part  ii.  pp.  213,  223.) 


124  IIATI0NALI3M   IN    EUEOPE. 

subjected  witches  to  death  on  the  first  conviction,  even 
though  they  should  have  inflicted  no  injury  upon  their  neigh 
hours.  This  law  Avas  passed  when  Coke  was  Attorney- 
General,  and  Bacon  a  member  of  Parliament;  and  twelve 
bishops  sat  upon  the  Commission  to  which  it  was  referred.^ 
The  prosecutions  were  rapidly  multiplied  throughout  the 
country,  but  especially  in  Lancashire ;  and  at  the  same  time 
the  general  tone  of  literature  was  strongly  tinged  with  the 
superstition.  Sir  Thomas  Browne  declared  that  those  who 
denied  the  existence  of  witchcraft  were  not  only  infidels,  but 
also,  by  implication,  atheists.^  Shakspeare,  like  most  of  the 
other  dramatists  of  his  time,  again  and  again  referred  to  the 
belief;  and  we  owe  to  it  that  melancholy  picture  of  Joan  of 
x\rc,  Avhich  is,  perhaps,  the  darkest  blot  upon  his  genius,' 
Bacon  continually  inveighed  against  the  follies  shown  by 
magicians  in  their  researches  into  nature ;  yet  in  one  of  his 
most  important  works  he  pronounced  the  three  '  declinations 

'""     *  Madden's  P/ianL,  vol.  i.  p.  447. 

-  '  I  have  ever  believed,  and  do  now  know,  that  there  are  witches  ;  they  that 
doubt  them  do  not  only  deny  them  but  spirits,  and  are  obliquely  and  upon 
consequence  a  sort,  not  of  infidels,  but  of  atheists.'  [Religio  Medici^  p.  24, 
ed.  16T2.)  Sir  T.  Browne  did  not,  however,  believe  in  incubi,  or  in  lycan- 
thropy. 

^  On  the  extent  to  which  the  behef  was  reflected  in  the  dramatic  Uterature 
of  Elizabeth  and  James  I,  see  Wright's  Sorcery,  vol.  i.  pp.  286,  296.  It  was 
afterwards  the  custom  of  Voltaire,  when  decrying  the  genius  of  Shakspeare, 
to  dweU  constantly  on  such  characters  as  the  witches  in  Macbeth.  But  such 
scenes,  though  in  modern  times  they  may  have  an  unreal  and  grotesque  appear- 
ance, did  not  present  the  slightest  improbability  at  the  time  they  were  written. 
It  is  probable  that  Shakspeare,  it  is  certain  that  the  immense  majority  even  of 
his  most  highly  educated  and  gifted  contemporaries,  believed  with  an  unfalter. 
ing  faith  in  the  reality  of  witchcraft.  Shakspeare  was,  therefore,  perfectly 
justified  in  introducing  into  his  plays  personages  who  were,  of  all  others,  most 
fitted  to  enhance  the  grandeur  and  the  solemnity  of  tragedy,  when  thev  faith- 
♦"ully  reflected  the  belief  of  tlie  audience. 


MAGIC   AND   WITCHCRAFT.  123 

from  religion '  to  be  '  heresies,  idolatry,  and  witchcraft. '  * 
Selden  took  up  a  somewhat  peculiar  and  characteristic  posi- 
tion. He  maintained  that  the  law  condemning  women  to 
deatli  for  witchcraft  was  perfectly  just,  but  that  it  was  quite 
unnecessary  to  ascertain  whether  witchcraft  was  a  ^possibility. 
A  woman  might  not  be  able  to  destroy  the  life  of  her  neigh- 
bour by  her  incantations ;  but  if  she  intended  to  do  so,  it  was 


rio'ht  that  she  should  be  himo\ 


But,  great  as  were  the  exertions  made  by  James  to  extir-- 
pate  witchcraft,  they  completely  sink  into  insignificance  be- 
fore those  which  were  made  during  the  Commomvealth.  As 
soon  as  Puritanism  gained  an  ascendency  in  the  country,  as 
soon  as  its  ministers  succeeded  in  imparting  their  gloomy 
tenets  to  the  governing  classes,  the  superstition  assumed  a 
gigantic  magnitude.  During  the  few  years  of  the  Common- 
wealth, there  is  reason  to  believe  that  more  alleged  witches 
perislied  in  England  than  in  the  whole  period  before  and 
after.'"  ISTor  is  this  to  be  ascribed  entirely  to  the  judges  or 
the  legislators,  for  the  judges  in  former  reigns  never  shrank 
from  condemning  witches,  and  Cromwell  Avas  in  most  respects 
far  superior  to  his  predecessors.  It  was  simply  the  natural 
result  of  Puritanical  teaching  acting  on  the  mind,  predis- 
posing men  to  see  Satanic  influence  in  life,  and  consequently 
eliciting  the  phenomena  of  witchcraft.  A  panic  on  the  sub- 
ject spread  through  the  coimtry ;  and  anecdotes  of  Satanic 
power  soon  crowded  in  from  every  side.  The  county 
of  Suffolk  was  especially  agitated,  and  the  famous  witch- 
finder,  Matthew  Hopkins,  pronounced  it  to  be  infested 
with  witches.     A  commission  was  accordingly  issued,  and 

^  Advancement  of  Learning,  xxv.  22.     It  is  true  that  this  book  was  dodi 
cated  to  the  king,  whose  writings  on  the  subject  were  commended. 
2  Tahh-Talk  ^  Hutchinson,  p.  G8. 


126  RATIONALISM   IN    EUROPE. 

two  clistinguished  Presbyterian  divines  were  selected  by 
the  Parliament  to  accompany  it.  It  would  have  been  im- 
j)0ssible  to  take  any  measure  more  calculated  to  stimulate 
the  prosecution,  and  we  accordingly  find  that  in  Suffolk 
sixty  persons  were  hung  for  witchcraft  in  a  single  year.' 
Among  others,  an  Anglican  clergyman,  named  Lowes,  who 
was  now  verging  on  eighty,  and  who  for  fifty  years  had  been 
an  irreproachable  minister  of  his  church,  fell  under  the  sus- 
picion. The  unhappy  old  man  was  kept  awake  for  several 
successive  nights,  and  persecuted  '  till  he  was  weary  of  his 
life,  and  was  scarcely  sensible  of  what  he  said  or  did.'  He 
was  then  thrown  into  the  water,  condemned,  and  hung. 
According  to  the  story  which  circulated  among  the  members 
of  the  Established  Church,  he  maintained  his  innocence  man- 
fully to  the  end.  If  we  believe  the  Puritanical  account,  it 
would  appear  that  his  brain  gave  way  under  the  trial,  and 
that  his  accusers  extorted  from  him  a  wild  romance,  which 
was  afterwards,  with  many  others,  reproduced  by  Baxter 
V  '  for  the  conversion  of  the  Sadducee  and  the  infidel.'  ^ 

We  have  seen  that  the  conception  of  witchcraft,  which 

^  This  is  alluded  to  in  Hudibras : —  ' 

'  Hatli  not  this  present  Pai^liament 
A  ledger  to  the  devil  sent 
Fully  empowered  to  treat  about 
Finding  revolted  witches  out  ? 
And  has  not  he  within  a  year 
Hanged  threescore  of  them  in  one  shire^'  &e. 

Second  part,  Canto  iii. 
^  Baxter  relates  the  whole  story  with  evident  pleasure.  He  says  :  'Among 
tne  rest,  an  old  reading  parson  named  Lowis,  not  far  from  Framlingham,  was 
one  that  was  hanged,  who  confessed  that  he  had  two  imps,  and  that  one  of 
them  was  always  putting  him  on  doing  mischief,  and  (being  near  the  sea)  as 
he  saw  a  ship  imder  sail,  it  moved  him  to  send  him  to  sink  the  ship,  and  he 
consented,  and  saw  the  ship  sink  befoi-G  him.'  {World  of  Spirits^  p.  bZ.^  For 
the  other  view  of  the  case,  sec  Hutchinson,  pp.  88-90. 


MAGIC    AND    WITCIICEAFT.  127 

had  existed  in  England  from  the  earliest  period,  assumed  for 
the  first  time  a  certain  prominence  amid  the  religious  terror- 
ism of  the  Reformation ;  that  its  importance  gradually  in- 
creased as  the  trials  and  executions  directed  public  attention 
to  the  subject ;  and  that  it,  at  last,  reached  its  climax  under 
the  gloomy  theology  of  the  Puritans.  It  noAV  only  remains 
for  me  to  trace  the  history  of  its  decline. 

In  pursuing  this  task,  I  must  repeat  that  it  is  impossible 
to  follow  the  general  intellectual  tendencies  of  a  nation  with 
the  degree  of  precision  with  which  we  may  review  the 
events  or  the  arguments  they  produced.  We  have  ample 
evidence  that,  at  a  certain  period  of  English  history,  there 
was  manifested  in  some  classes  a  strong  disposition  to  regard 
witch  stories  as  absurd ;  but  we  cannot  say  precisely  when 
the  idea  of  grotesqueness  was  first  attached  to  tlie  belief, 
nor  can  we  map  out  with  exactness  the  stages  of  its  pro- 
gress. Speaking  generally,  hoAvever,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  it  first  became  prominent  in  that  great  sceptical  move- 
ment  which  followed  the  Restoration.  The  reaction  against 
the  austere  rigidity  of  the  last  Government,  had  produced 
among  the  gayer  classes  a  sudden  outburst  of  the  most  deri- 
sive incredulity..  From  mocking  the  solemn  gait,  tlie  nasal 
twang,  and  the  afiected  phraseology  of  the  Puritans,  they 
naturally  proceeded  to  ridicule  their  doctrines  ;  and  having 
soon  discovered  in  witchcraft  abundant  materials  for  their 
satire,  they  made  disbelief  in  it  one  of  the  tests  of  fiishion. 
At  the  same  time  tlie  higher  intellectual  influences  were 
tending  strongly  to  produce  a  similar  movement  among  the 
learned.  Hobbes,  who  was  the  most  distinguished  of  living 
philosophers,  had  directed  all  the  energies  of  his  scepticism 
against  incorporeal  substances,  had  treated  with  unsparing 
ridicule  the  conceptions  of  demons  and  of  apparitions,  and 


128  EATIOXALISM   IX   EUROPE. 

bad  created  in  liis  disciples  a  predisposition  to  regard  tliem 
as  belo\y  contempt/  A  similar  predisposition  was  formed 
by  the  philosophy  of  Bacon,  which  had  then  acquired  an 
immense  popularity.  The  Royal  Society^  had  been  just  es- 
tablished ;  a  passion  for  natural  philosoj)hy,  very  similar  to 
that  which  preceded  the  French  Revolution,  had  become 
general ;  and  the  whole  force  of  the  English  intellect  was 
directed  to  the  study  of  natural  phenomena,  and  to  the  dis- 
covery of  natural  laws.  In  this  manner  there  was  formed  a 
general  disposition  to  attribute  to  every  event  a  natural 
cause,  which  was  soon  followed  by  a  conviction  of  the  ab- 
surdity of  explaining  phenomena  by  a  supernatural  hypoth- 
esis, and  which  rapidly  discredited  the  anecdotes  of  witches. 
There  does  not  appear  to  have  been  any  very  careful  scrutiny 
of  their  details,  yet  there  was  a  growing  indisposition  to  be- 
lieve them,  as  they  were  discordant  with  the  modes  of 
thought  which  the  experimental  philosophy  had  produced. 

By  the  combination  of  these  three  influences,  a  profound 
change  was  soon  effected  in  the  manner  in  which  witchcraft 
was  regarded.  The  sense  of  its  improba^bility  became  for 
the  first  time  general  among  educated  laymen,  and  the  num- 
ber of  the  trials  speedily  diminished.  In  1664,  hoAvever,  two 
women  were  hung  in  Suffolk,  under  a  sentence  of  Sir  Mat- 
thew Hale,  who  took  the  opportunity  of  declaring  that  the 
reality  of  witchcraft  was  unquestionable ;  '  for  first,  the 
Scriptures  had  affirmed  so  much ;  and  secondly,  the  wisdom 
of  all  nations  had  provided  laws  against  such  persons, 
which  is  an  ai'gument  of  their  confidence  of  such  a  crime.' 

^  On  the  opinions  of  Hobbes  on  this  subject,  and  on  his  great  influence  in 
discrediting  these  superstitions,  see  Cudwortli's  Intellectual  Si/siem,  vol.  i.  p.  ]  16. 

-  The  (indirect)  influence  of  the  Eoyal  Society  on  this  subject  is  noticed  ^y 
Hutchinson,  and  indeed  most  of  the  writers  on  witchcraft.  Sec  Casaubon  on 
Creduliti/,  p.  191. 


MAGIC    AND   WITCIICEAFT.  129 

Sir  Thomas  Browne,  who  w^as  a  great  physician,  as  well  as 
a  great  w^'iter,  was  called  as  a  witness,  and  swore  '  that  he 
was  clearly  of  opinion  that  the  persons  were  bewitched.'  V      ^ 

Seventeen  years  later,  the  defence  of  the  dying  belief  was 
taken  up  by  Joseph  Glanvil,  a  divine,  who  in  his  own  day 
was  very  famous,  and  vrho,  I  venture  to  think,  has  been  sur- 
passed in  genius  by  few  of  his  successors.  Among  his  con- 
temporaries he  was  especially  praised  as  an  able  scholar  and 
dialectician,  and  as  a  writer  whose  style,  though  not  untinc- 
tured  by  the  j^edantry  of  his  age,  often  furnishes  the  noblest 
examples  of  that  glorious  eloquence,  so  rich  in  varied  and 
majestic  harmonies,  of  which  Milton  and  the  early  Anglican 
divines  w^ere  the  greatest  masters.  To  us,  however,  who 
look  upon  his  career  from  the  vantage  ground  of  experience, 
it  assumes  a  far  higher  interest,  for  it  occupies  a  most  impor- 
tant position  in  the  history  of  that  experimental  philosophy 
which  has  become  the  great  guiding  influence  of  the  English 
mind.  As  the  w^orks  of  Glanvil  are  far  less  known  than  they 
should  be,  and  as  his  defence  of  witchcraft  was  intimately 
connected  with  his  earlier  literary  enter^mses,  I  shall  make 
no  apology  for  giving  a  general  outline  of  his  opinions. 

To  those  who  only  know  him  as  the  defender  of  witch- 
craft, it  may  aj^pear  a  somew^hat  startling  paradox  to  say, 
that  the  predominating  characteristic  of  the  mind  of  Glanvil 
w^as  an  intense  scepticism.  He  has  even  been  termed  by  a 
modern  critic  'the  first  English  writer  who  had  thrown 
scepticism  into  a  definite  form ; '  ^  and  if  we  regard  this  ex- 
pression as  simply  implying  a  profound  distrust  of  human 

'  The  report  of  this  trial  is  reprinted  in  A  Collection  of  Rare  and  Can- 
Otis  Tracts  relating  to  Witchcraft  (London,  1838). 

-  BiograpMe  Universelle — an  article  which  is  also  ui  the  Unci/clopccdia 
BHtannica. 


130  EATIOXALISM   IX    EUEOPE. 

faculties,  and  not  at  all  the  rejection  of  any  distinct  dogmatic 
system,  the  judgment  can  hardly  be  disputed.  And  certain- 
ly, it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  work  displaying  less  of  the 
credulity  and  superstition  that  are  commonly  attributed  to 
the  believers  in  witchcraft  than  the  treatise  on  '  The  Yanity 
of  Dogmatising,  or  Confidence  of  Opinions,'  ^  in  which  Glan- 
vil  expounded  his  philosophical  views.  Developing  a  fev 
scattered  hints  of  Bacon,  he  undertook  to  make  a  comprehen- 
sive survey  of  the  human  faculties,  to  analyse  the  distorting 
influences  that  corrode  or  pervert  our  judgments,  to  reveal 
the  weakness  and  fallibility  of  the  most  powerful  intellect, 
and  to  estimate  the  infinity  of  darkness  that  encircles  our 
scanty  knowledge.  Not  only  did  he  trace,  with  the  most 
>  ivid  and  unfaltering  pen,  the  proneness  to  error  that  accom- 
panies the  human  intellect  in  the  moments  of  its  greatest  con- 
fidence; not  only  did  he  paint  in  the  darkest  colours  the 
tenacity  and  the  inveteracy  of  prejudice ;  he  even  accepted 
to  the  fullest  extent  the  consequence  of  his  doctrine,  and, 
Avith  Descartes,  enjoined  a  total  abnegation  of  the  opinions 
that  have  been  received  by  education  as  the  first  condition 
of  enquiry.  He  showed  himself  perfectly  acquainted  Avith 
the  diversities  of  intellectual  tone,  or  as  he  very  happily 
termed  them,  the  '  climates  of  opinion,'  that  belong  to  difiTer- 

^  There  is  a  good  review  of  this  book  in  Hailam's  Hist,  of  Zit.,\o\.  iii.  pp. 
358-362.  It  is,  I  think,  by  far  the  best  thing  Glanril  wrote,  and  he  evidently 
took  extraordinary  pains  in  bringing  it  to  perfection.  It  first  appeared  as  a  short 
essay ;  it  was  then  expanded  into  a  reg-ular  treatise ;  and  still  later,  recast  and 
pubUshed  anew  under  the  title  of  '  Scepsis  Sdcntifca.^  This  last  edition  i3 
extremely  rare,  the  greater  part  of  the  impression  having,  ic  is  said  (I  do  not 
know  on  what  authority),  been  destroyed  in  the  fire  of  London,  It  wa3 
answered  by  Thomas  "White,  a  once  famous  Eoman  Catholic  controversialist 
I  cannot  but  think  that  Paley  was  acquainted  with  the  works  of  Glanvil,  for 
their  mode  of  treating  many  sul)jccts  is  strikingly  similar.  Paley's  watch 
simile  is  fully  developed  by  Glanvil,  in  chap.  v. 


MAGIC    AXD   WITCHCRAFT.  131 

ent  ages ;  and  he  devoted  an  entire  chapter^  to  the  decep- 
tions of  the  imagination,  a  faculty  which  he  treated  with  as 
much  severity  as  Butler. 

On  the  publication  of  this  treatise  Glanvil  had  been 
elected  a  fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  became  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  of  the  small  but  able  minority  of  the 
clergy  who  cordially  embraced  tlie  inductive  philosophy. 
To  combat  the  strong  antipathy  with  which  this  philosophy 
was  regarded  in  the  Church,  and  to  bring  theology  into  har- 
mony with  its  principles,  was  the  task  to  Avhich  he  devoted 
the  remainder  of  his  life.  Spratt,  and  in  a  less  degree  one 
or  two  other  diN'ines,  were  employed  in  the  same  noble  cause; 
but  the  manner  in  which  Glanvil  conducted  his  enterprise 
separates  him,  I  think,  clearly  from  his  fellow-labourers. 
For,  while  his  contemporaries  seem  to  have  expected  as  the 
extreme  consequences  of  the  philosophy,  on  the  one  hand  a 
period  of  passing  disturbance,  arising  from  the  discovery  of 
apparent  discrepancies  between  science  and  the  Bible,  and 
on  the  other  hand  increased  evidence  of  the  faith,  arising 
from  the  solution  of  those  difficulties  and  from  the  increased 
perception  of  superintending  wisdom  exhibited  in  'the  wheel- 
work  of  creation,'  Glanvil  perceived  very  clearly  that  a  far 
deeper  and  more  general  modification  was  at  hand.  He 
saw  that  the  theological  system  existing  in  a  nation,  is 
intimately  connected  with  the  j^i'e vailing  modes  of  thought 
or  intellectual  condition  ;  that  the  new  philosophy  was  about 
to  change  that  condition  ;  and  that  the  Church  must  cither 
adapt  herself  to  the  altered  tone,  or  lose  her  influence  over 
the  English  mind.  He  saw  that  a  theology  wliich  rested 
ultimately  on  authority,  which  branded  doubt  as  criminal, 
and  which  discouraged  in  the  strongest  manner  every  impar- 

^  Chapter  xi. 


132  NATIONALISM   IN   EUEOrE. 

tial  investigation,  could  not  long  co- exist  with  a  j)liilosophy 
that  encouraged  the  opposite  habits  of  thought  as  the  very  be- 
ginning of  wisdom.  He  saw  that  while  men  maintained  every 
strange  j^henoraenon  to  be  miraculous  as  long  as  it  was  unex- 
plained, each  advance  of  physical  science  must  necessarily  be 
hostile  to  theology;  and  that  the  passionate  adoration  of 
Aristotle  ;  the  blind  j^edantic  reverence,  which  accounted  the 
simplest  assertions  of  dead  men  decisive  authorities;  the  retro- 
spective habits  of  thought  the  universities  steadily  laboured 
to  encourage,  were  all  incompatible  with  the  new  tendencies 
which  Bacon  represented/  In  an  essay  on  'Anti-fanatical 
Religion  and  Free  Philosophy,'  vv^hich  was  designed  to  be  a 
continuation  of  the  ^ew  Atlantis  of  Bacon,  he  drew  a  noble 
sketch  of  an  ideal  church  constructed  to  meet  the  wants  of 
an  intellectual  and  a  critical  age.  Its  creed  Avas  to  be  framed 
on  the  most  latitudinarian  principles,  because  the  doctrines 
that  could  be  defended  with  legitimate  assurance  were  but 
few  and  simple.  Its  ministers  were  to  be  much  less  anxious 
to  accumulate  the  traditions  of  the  past  than  to  acquire  '  the 
felicity  of  clear  and  distinct  thinking,'  and  '  a  large  compass 
in  their  thoughts.'  They  v/ere*  to  regard  faith,  not  as  the 
opposite  of  reason,  but  as  one  of  its  manifestations.  Pene- 
trated by  the  sense  of  human  weakness,  they  were  to  rebuke 


^  He  compares  the  leading  scholars  of  his  day  to  the  mariner  who  returned 
laden  with  common  pebbles  from  the  Indies,  imagining  that  that  must  neces- 
sarily be  rare  that  came  from  afar ;  and  he  accused  them  of  asserting,  on  the 
authority  of  Bcza,  that  women  have  no  beards,  and  on  that  of  St.  Augustine 
that  peace  is  a  blessing.  He  pronounced  university  education  in  general,  and 
that  of  Oxford  in  particular,  to  be  almost  worthless.  The  indignation  such 
sentiments  created  at  Oxford  is  very  anmsingly  shown  in  AYood's  Athcncc^  arts. 
Glanvil  and  Crosse.  Crosse  was  a  Fellow  of  Oxford  (a  D.D.),  who  at  first 
vehemently  assailed  Glanvil  in  prose,  but  at  last  changed  his  mode  of  attack, 
and  wrote  comic  ballads,  which  Wood  assures  us  'made  Glanvil  and  his 
Societv  ridiculous.' 


MAGIC    Al'sD   WITCHCEAFT.  133 

the  S23int  of  dogmatic  confidence  and  assertion,  and  were  to 
teach  men  that,  so  far  from  doubt  being  criminal,  it  was  the 
duty  of  every  man  '  to  suspend  his  full  and  resolved  assent 
to  the  doctrines  he  had  been  taught,  till  he  had  impartially 
considered  and  examined  them  for  himself.' 

A  religious  system  Avhich  is  thus  divested  of  the  support 
of  authority,  may  be  upheld  upon  two  grounds.  It  may 
be  defended  on  the  rationalistic  ground,  as  according  with 
conscience,  representing  and  reflecting  the  light  that  is  in 
mankind,  and  being  thus  its  own  justification;  or  it  may  be 
defended  as  a  distinct  dogmatic  system  by  a  train  of  eviden- 
tial reasoning.  The  character  of  his  own  mind,  and  the  very 
low  ebb  to  which  moral  feeling  had  sunk  in  his  age,  induced 
Glanvil  to  j^rcfer  the  logical  to  the  moral  proof,  and  he  be- 
lieved that  the  field  on  which  the  battle  must  first  be  fought 
was  witchcraft.^ 

The  '  Sadducismus  Triumphatus,'  which  is  probably  the 
ablest  book  ever  published  in  defence  of  the  superstition, 
opens  with  a  striking  picture  of  the  rapid  progress  of  the  scep- 
ticism in  England.''    Everywhere,  a  disbelief  in  witchcraft  was 

*  He  thought  the  fact  of  the  miracles  of  witchcraft  being  contemporary, 
would  make  it  peculiarly  easy  to  test  them  :  '  for  things  remote  or  long  past 
are  either  not  believed  or  forgotten ;  whereas,  these  being  fresh  and  new,  and 
attended  with  all  the  circumstances  of  credibility,  it  may  be  expected  they 
should  have  most  success  upon  the  obstinacy  of  unbelievers.'  {Preface  to  the 
Sadducismus.) 

-  '  Alheism  is  begun  in  Sadducism,  and  those  that  dare  not  bhmtly  say 
there  is  no  God,  content  themselves  (for  a  fair  step  and  introduction)  to  deny 
there  are  spirits  or  witches,  which  sort  of  infidels,  though  they  are  not  ordi- 
nary among  the  mere  vulgar,  yet  are  they  numerous  in  a  little  higher  rank  of 
understandings.  And  those  that  know  anything  of  the  world,  know  that  most 
of  the  looser  gentrj^,  and  the  small  pretenders  to  philosophy  and  wit,  are  gen- 
erally deriders  of  the  belief  of  witches  and  apparitions.'  I  need  hardly  say 
Ihat  the  word  Atheism  was,  in  the  time  of  Glanvil,  used  in  the  very  loosest 
sense ;  indeed,  Dugald  Stewart  shows,  that  at  one  time  the  disbelievers  in 
apostolical  succession  were  commonly  denounced  as  Atheists.    {Bhsert.,  p.  378.) 


134  HATIOXALISM    IX     EUEOPE. 

becoming  fashionable  in  the  upper  classes;  but  it  was  a 
disbelief  that  arose  entirely  from  a  strong  sense  of  its  ante- 
cedent improbability.  All  who  were  opposed  to  the  ortho- 
dox faith  united  in  discrediting  witchcraft.  They  laughed  at 
it,  as  palpably  absurd,  as  involving  the  most  grotesque  and 
ludicrous  conceptions,  as  so  essentially  incredible  that  it 
would  be  a  waste  of  time  to  examine  it.  This  spirit  had 
arisen  since  the  Restoration,  although  the  laws  were  still  in 
force,  and  although  little  or  no  direct  reasoning  had  been 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  subject.  In  order  to  combat  it, 
Glauvil  proceeded  to  examine  the  general  question  of  the  cred- 
ibility of  the  miraculous.  He  saw  that  the  reason  why  witch- 
craft was  ridiculed,  was,  because  it  was  a  phase  of  the  miracu- 
lous and  the  work  of  the  devil ;  that  the  scepticism  was  chief- 
ly due  to  those  who  disbelieved  in  miracles  and  the  devil ; 
and  that  the  instances  of  witchcraft  or  possession  in  the  Bible, 
were  invariably  placed  on  a  level  with  those  that  w^ere  tried 
in  the  law  courts  of  England.  That  the  evidence  of  the  belief 
was  overwhelming,  he  firmly  believed;^  andthis, indeed, Avas 

^  See  a  striking  passage,  pp.  3,  4  : — '  I  must  premise  that  this,  being  matter 
of  fact,  is  only  capable  of  the  evidence  of  authority  and  of  sense,  and  by  both 
these  the  being  of  witches  and  diabolical  contracts  is  mast  abundantly  con- 
firmed. All  histories  are  full  of  the  exploits  of  those  instruments  of  dark- 
ness, and  the  testimony  of  all  ages,  not  only  of  the  rude  and  barbarous,  but 
of  the  most  civilised  and  polished  world,  brings  tidings  of  their  strange  per- 
formances. We  have  the  attestation  of  thousands  of  eye  and  ear  witnesses, 
and  those  not  of  the  easily  deceivable  vulgar  only,  but  of  wise  and  grave  dis- 
cerners,  and  that  when  no  interest  could  oblige  them  to  agree  together  in  a 
common  lie  ;  I  say  we  have  the  light  of  all  these  circumstances  to  confirm  us 
in  the  behef  of  things  done  by  persons  of  despicable  power  and  knowledge, 
beyond  the  reach  of  art  and  ordinary  nature.  Standing  public  records  have 
been  kept  of  these  well-attested  relations,  and  epochas  made  of  these  unwonted 
events.  Laws,  in  many  nations,  have  been  enacted  against  those  vile  prac- 
tices ;  those  among  the  Jews  and  our  own  are  notorious.  Such  cases  have 
been  often  determined  with  us,  by  wise  and  revered  judges,  upon  clear  and 
constructive  evidence ;  and  thousands  in  our  own  nation  have  suffered  death  for 


MAGIC   AXD    WITCHCRAFT.  135 

scarcely  disputed;  but,  until  the  sense  of  d2^i'iori  improba- 
bility was  removed,  no  possible  accumulation  of  facts  would 
cause  men  to  be  .ieve  it.  To  that  task  he  accordingly  address- 
ed himself.  Anticipating  the  idea  and  almost  the  words  of 
modern  controversialists,  he  urged  that  there  was  such  a  thing 
03  a  credulity  of  unbelief;  and  that  those  who  believed  so 
strange  a  concurrence  of  delusions  as  Avas  necessary  on  the 
supposition  of  the  unreality  of  witchcraft,  were  far  more  cred- 
ulous than  those  who  accepted  the  belief.^  He  made  his  very 
scepticism  his  principal  weapon ;  and,  analysing  with  much 
acuteness  the  cl  2^riori  objections,  he  showed  that  they  rested 
upon  an  unwarrantable  confidence  in  our  knoAvledge  of  the 
laws  of  the  spirit  world ;  that  they  implied  the  existence  of 
some  strict  analogy  between  the"  faculties  of  men  and  of 
spirits ;  and  that,  as  such  analogy  most  probably  did  not 
exist,  no  reasoning  based  on  the  supposition  could  dispense 
men  from  examining  the  evidence.  He  concluded  with  a 
large  collection  of  cases,  the  evidence  of  which  was,  as  he 
thought,  incontestable.    ^- 

The  'Sadducismus  Triumphatus'  had  an  extraordinary 
success.     Numerous  editions  were  issued,  and  scA^eral  very 

their  vile  compact  with  apostate  spirits.  All  this  I  might  largely  prove  in 
their  particular  instances,  but  that  it  is  not  needful ;  since  those  that  deny  the 
being  of  witches  do  it,  not  out  of  ignorance  of  those  heads  of  argument 
%Yliich,  probably,  they  have  heard  a  thousand  times,  but  from  an  apprehen- 
sion that  such  a  belief  is  absurd,  and  the  things  impossible.' 

^  ' I  think  those  that  can  believe  all  histories  are  romances;  that  all  the 
wise  could  have  agreed  to  juggle  mankind  into  a  common  belief  of  ungrounded 
fables ;  that  the  sound  senses  of  multitudes  together  may  deceive  them,  and 
laws  are  built  upon  chimeras  ;  that  the  gravest  and  wisest  judges  have  been 
murderers,  and  the  sagest  persons  fools  or  designing  impostors ;  I  say  those 
that  can  believe  this  heap  of  absurdities,  are  either  more  credulous  than  those 
whose  credulity  they  reprehend,  or  else  have  some  extraordinary  evidence  of 
their  persuasion,  viz.,  that  it  is  absurd  or  impossible  there  should  be  a  witch 
or  apparition.'     (P.  4.) 


136  NATIONALISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

able  men  came  forward  to  support  its  views.  Henry  More, 
the  famous  philosopher,  wrote  a  warm  eulogium  to  Glanvil, 
and  drew  up  a  long  argument  in  the  same  sj^irit,  in  which  he 
related  several  additional  w^itch  cases,  and  pronounced  the 
opponents  of  the  belief  to  be  mere  'buffoons,  puffed  up 
wath  nothing  but  ignorance,  vanity,  and  stupid  infidelity.'  ^ 
Casaubon,  the  learned  dean  of  Canterbury,  wa'ote  to  the 
same  effect,  but  in  more  moderate  language.^  Cudworth, 
perhaps  the  most  profound  of  all  the  great  scholars  who  have 
adorned  the  English  church,  pronounced  the  scepticism  on 
the  subject  of  witches  to  be  cliiefly  a  consequence  of  the 
influence  of  Hobbes ;  and  he  added,  that  those  wdio  j)artook 
of  that  scepticism  might  be  justly  suspected  of  Atheism.'* 
Several  other  divines  pressed  forward  in  the  same  spirit ;  and 
they  made  witchcraft,  for  a  time,  one  of  the  chief  subjects  of 
controversy  in  England.  On  the  other  side,  the  discussion 
vras  extremely  languid.  'No  writer,  comparable  in  ability  or 
influence  to  Glanvil,  More,  Cudworth,  or  eyen  Casaubon, 
appeared  to  challenge  the  belief;  nor  did  any  of  the  writings 
on  that  side  obtain  any  success  at  all  equal  to  that  of  the  Sad- 
ducismus.  The  principal  writer  was  a  surgeon  named 
Webster,  wdiose  work  is  remarkable  as  one  of  the  earliest 
instances  of  the  systematic  application  of  a  rationalistic 
hitcrpretation  to  the  magical  miracles  in  the  Bible.     Accord- 

^  His  letters  on  the  subject  are  prefixed  to  the  Sadducismus, 
^  On  Credulity  and  Incredulity.      This  Casaubon  was  son  of  the  great 
Greek  scholar. 

^  '  As  for  wizards  and  magicians,  persons  who  associate  and  confederate 
themselves  with  these  evil  spirits  for  the  gratification  of  tlieir  own  revenge, 
lust,  ambition,  and  other  passions ;  besides  the  Scriptures,  there  hath  been  so 
full  an  attestation  given  to  them  by  persons  unconcerned  in  all  ages,  that  those 
our  so  confident  exploders  of  them  in  this  present  age  can  hardly  escape  the 
suspicion  of  having  some  hankering  towards  atheism.'  {Int.  Syst.,  vol.  ii.  p. 
650.     See  also  vol.  i.  p.  IIG.) 


MAGIC    AND   WITCHCRAFT.  137 

mg  to  him,  the  magicians  in  Egypt  were  ordniary  jugglers, 
the  witcli  of  Endor  had  dressed  up  an  accomplice  to  per- 
sonate Samuel,  the  word  witch  in  Leviticus  only  signified 
poisoner,  the  demoniacs  were  chiefly  lunatics,  and  the  Mag- 
dalene had  been  freed  from  seven  vices/  An  unknown 
scholar  named  Wagstaafe,  at  Oxford,  also  wrote  two  short 
works  on  the  subject;^  and  one  or  two  others  appeared 
anonymously.     The  scepticism  steadily  increased. 

A  few  years  afterwards,  a  new  and  strenuous  attempt 
was  made  to  arrest  it  by  accounts  of  fresh  cases  of  witch- 
craft in  America.  The  pilgrim  fathers  had  brought  to  that 
country  the  seeds  of  the  superstition ;  and,  at  the  same  time 
when  it  was  rapidly  fading  in  England,  it  flourished  with 
fearful  vigour  in  Massachusetts.  Two  Puritan  ministers, 
named  Cotton  Mather  and  Parris,  proclaimed  the  frequency 
of  the  crime  ;  and,  being  warmly  su^^ported  by  their  brother 
divines,  they  succeeded  in  creating  a  panic  through  the  whole 
country.  A  commission  Avas  issued.  A  judge  named  S tough- 
ton,  vrho  appears  to  have  been  a  perfect  creature  of  the 
clergy,  conducted  the  trials.  Scourgings  and  tortures  were 
added  to  the  terrorism  of  the  pulpit,  and  many  confessions 
were  obtained.  The  few  who  ventured  to  oppose  the  prose- 
cutions were  denounced  as  Sadducees  and  infidels.  Multi- 
tudes were  thrown  into  prison,  others  fled  from  the  country 
abandoning  their  property,  and  twenty-seven  persons  were 
executed.     An  old  man  of  eighty  Avas  pressed  to  death — a 

*  Webster  on  Witches.  The  identification  of  the  Scripture  demoniacs  v;ith 
lunatics  had  been  made  by  Hobbes  also. 

^  Wagstaafe  was  a  deformed,  dwarfish  scholar  at  Oxford,  and  was  the 
special  butt  of  the  Oxonian  wit  (which  in  the  seventeenth  century  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  extremely  brilliant).  Poor  Wagstaafe  consoled  himself 
by  drinking  whiskey  punch ;  and  having  drunk  too  much,  he  died.  (Wood's 
A  thence.) 


138  EATIOXALIS:\[   IX    EUEOPE. 

horrible  sentence,  which  was  never  afterwards  executed  in 
America.  The  ministers  of  Boston  and  Charlestown  drew  np 
an  address,  Avarmly  thanking  the  commissioners  for  thcr 
zeal,  and  expressing  their  hope  that  it  would  never  be 
relaxed/ 

In  the  first  year  of  this  persecution,  Cotton  Mather  wrote 
a  history  of  the  earliest  of  the  trials.  This  history  was  intro- 
duced to  the  English  public  by  Richard  Baxter,  who  declared 
in  his  preface  that  '  that  man  must  be  a  very  obdurate  Sad- 
ducee  who  would  not  believe  it.'  ISTot  content  with  having 
thus  given  the  weight  of  his  great  name  to  the  superstition, 
Baxter  in  the  following  year  published  his  treatise  on  '  The 
Certainty  of  the  World  of  Spirits ; '  in  which  he  collected, 
with  great  industry,  an  immense  number  of  witch  cases  ;  re- 
v^erted  in  extremely  laudatory  terms  to  Cotton  Mather  and 
his  crusade ;  and  denounced,  in  unmeasured  language,  all 
who  were  sceptical  upon  the  subject.  This  work  appeared 
in  1691,  when  the  panic  in  America  had  not  yet  reached  its 
height ;  and  being  widely  circulated  beyond  the  Atlantic,  is 
said  to  have  contributed  much  to  stimulate  the  prosecutions.'' 
In  England  it  produced  little  effect.  The  scepticism  that  was 
already  pervading  all  classes  was  steadily  and  silently  in- 
creasing, under  the  influence  of  an  intellectual  movement  that 
was  too  general  and  too  powerful  for  any  individual  genius 
to  arrest.  At  the  time  of  the  Restoration  the  belief  had  been 
common  among  the  most  educated.  In  1*718,  when  Hutchin- 
son wrote,  it  scarcely  existed,  except  among  the  ignorant 
and  in  a  small  section  of  the  clergy."     Yet,  in  the  interval, 

^  Bancroft,  Ilhtory  of  the  United  States^  ch.  xix.     nutchiuson,  pp.  95-119. 

'  Hutchinson,  pp.  95-119. 

'  Mr.  Buckle  places  the  scepticism  a  little  earlier.  He  says  :  '  This  impor- 
tant revolution  in  our  opinion  was  effected,  so  far  as  the  educated  classes  are 
concerned,  between  the  Restoration  and  Revolution ;  that  is  to  say,  in  IGfiO, 


MAGIC  AND  wiTcncEArr.  139 

the  vast  i>reponderance  of  controversial  literature  had  un 
questionably  been  on  the  conservative  side.  During  that 
period  no  less  than  twenty-five  works  ^  are  known  to  have 
appeared  in  England  in  defence  of  the  belief;  and  among 
their  authors  we  have  seen  some  of  the  ablest  men  in  England. 
The  work  of  Baxter,  notwithstandins:  the  wei^'ht  of  his  srreat 
name,  and  the  very  definite  character  of  his  statements,  ap- 
pears to  have  remained  entirely  unanswered  till  it  was  re- 
viewed by  Hutchinson  twenty-six  years  after  its  publication. 
Yet  it  could  do  no  more  to  arrest,  than  the  work  of  Scott  had 
done  to  produce,  the  scepticism.  Three  witches  had  been 
executed  in  1682  ;  and  others,  it  is  said,  endured  the  same 
fate  in  1712  ;  but  these  were  the  last  who  perished  judicially 
in  England.2  The  last  trial,  at  least  of  any  notoriety,  Avas 
that  of  Jane  Wenham,  who  was  prosecuted  in  1712,  by 
some  Hertfordshire  clergymen.  The  judge  entirely  disbe- 
lieved in  witches,  and  accordingly  charged  the  jury  strongly 
in  favour  of  the  accused,  and  even  treated  w^ith  great  disre- 
spect the  rector  of  the  parish,  who  declared  'on  his  faith  as  a 
clergyman '  that  he  believed  the  woman  to  be  a  witch.  The 
jury,  being  ignorant  and  ^bstinate,  convicted  the  prisoner ; 
but  the  judge  had  no  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  remission  of 
her  sentence.  A  long  war  of  pamj^hlets  ensued,  and  the 
clergy  who  had  been  engaged  in  the  prosecution,  drew  up  a 
document  strongly  asserting  their  belief  in  the  guilt  of  the 
accused,  animadverting   severely  upon   the  conduct  of  the 

the  majority  of  educated  men  still  believed  in  witchcraft ;  and  in  ]  GS8,  the 
majority  disbelieved  it,'  (Vol.  i.  p.  303.)  By  1718,  however,  the  minority 
had  become  insignificant. 

^  Some  of  them,  of  course,  were  mere  pamphlets,  but  a  large  proportion 
elaborate  works.    The  catalogue  is  given  by  Hutchinson. 

"  Compare  Hutchinson,  p.  57,  and  Buckle,  vol.  i.  p.  334.  I  say  judlciaUt/, 
for  in  the  Times  of  Sept.  24th,  1863,  there  is  an  account  of  an  old  man  who 
was  mobbed  to  death  in  the  county  of  Essex  as  a  wizard. 


14:0  KATIONALISM    IN    EUROPE. 

Judge,  and  concluding  with  tlie  solemn  words,  '  Liberavimus 
aninias  nostras.'  ^ 

It  is  probable  that  this  was  an  instance  of  somewhat  ex- 
ceptional fanaticism ;  and  that  Hutchinson,  who  was  himself 
a  clergyman,  represented  the  opinions  of  most  of  the  mcrt^. 
educated  of  his  profession,  when  a  few  years  later  he  de- 
scribed  witchcraft  as  a  delusion.  In  1736,  the  laws  on  the 
subject  were  repealed,  without  difficulty  or  agitation;  and 
there  are  very  few  instances  of  educated  men  regretting  them. 
In  1768,  however,  John  Wesley  prefaced  an  account  of  an  ap- 
parition that  had  been  related  by  a  girl  named  Elizabeth  Hob- 
son,  by  some  extremely  remarkable  sentences  on  the  subject. 
'It  is  true,  likewise,'  he  wrote,  'that  the  English  in  general, 
and  indeed  most  of  the  men  of  learning  in  Europe,  have 
given  up  all  accounts  of  witches  and  apparitions  as  mere  old 
wives'  fables.  I  am  sorry  for  it,  and  I  willingly  take  this 
opportunity  of  entering  my  solemn  protest  against  this  violent 
compliment  which  so  many  that  believe  the  Bible  pay  to 
those  who  do  not  believe  it.  I  owe  them  no  such  service.  I 
take  knowledge  that  these  are  at  the  bottom  of  the  outcry 
which  has  been  raised,  and  with  such  insolence  spread 
through  the  land,  in  direct  opposition,  not  only  to  the  Bible, 
but  to  the  suffrage  of  the  wisest  and  best  of  men  in  all  ages 
and  nations.  They  well  know  (whether  Christians  know  it 
or  not)  that  the  giving  up  witchcraft  is  in  effect  giving  up 
the  Bible.' ' 

In  reviewing  the  history  of  witchcraft  in  England,  it  is 
impossible  to  avoid  observing  the  singularly  favourable  con- 
t  rast  which  the  Anglican  Church  presents,  both  to  continen- 
tal Catholicism  and  to  Puritanism.     It  is  indeed  true  that 

'  Hutchinson,  pp.  1G3-1Y1.     Some  noble  and  liberal  remark?. 
2  Journal,  1708. 


MAGIC   AND   WITCHCRAFT.  1-il 

her  bishoj^s  contributed  much  to  the  enactment  of  the  laws 
against  witchcraft,  that  the  immense  majority  of  the  clergy 
firmly  believed  in  the  reality  of  the  crime,  and  that  they  con- 
tinued to  assert  and  to  defend  it  when  the  great  bulk  of  edu- 
cated laymen  had  abandoned  it.  It  is  also  true  that  the 
scepticism  on  the  subject  of  witches  arose  among  those  who 
were  least  governed  by  the  Church,  advanced  with  the  de- 
cline of  the  influence  of  the  clergy,  and  was  commonly 
branded  as  a  phase  and  manifestation  of  infidelity.  Yet,  on 
the  otlier  hand,  it  is  impossible  to  deny  that  the  general  mod- 
eration of  the  higher  clergy  was  beyond  all  praise,  and  that 
even  those  who  were  most  credulous  were  singularly  free  from 
that  thirst  of  blood  which  was  elsewhere  so  common.  On  the  ^ 
Continent,  every  attempt  to  substitute  a  lighter  punishment 
for  death  was  fiercely  denounced  as  a  direct  violation  of  the 
Divine  law.  Indeed,  some  persons  went  so  fiir  as  to  question 
the  lawfulness  of  strangling  the  witch  before  she  was  burnt. 
Her  crime,  they  said,  was  treason  against  the  Almighty,  and 
therefore  to  punish  it  by  any  but  the  most  agonizing  deaths 
was  an  act  of  disrespect  to  Him.  Besides,  the  penalty  in  the 
Levitical  code  was  stoning,  and  stoning  had  been  j^ronounced 
by  the  Jewish  theologians  to  be  a  still  more  painful  death 
than  the  stake.^  K'othimr  of  this  kind  was  found  in  Encjland.  ^ 
There  is,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  not  a  single  instance  of  the 
English  clergy  complaining  of  the  leniency  of  the  laws  upon 
the  subject,  or  attempting  to  introduce  torture  into  the  trials. 
Their  zeal  in  stimulating  the  persecution  by  exorcisms  and 
fimatical  preaching,  was  also  comparatively  languid.  As 
early  as  the  reign  of  James  I.,  the  Con  v^ocation  made  a  canon 
prohibiting  any  clergyman  from  exorcising  a  possessed  person, 
'sWthont  a  license  from  liis  bishop,  and  such  licenses  were 

'  Bodin,  p.  217. 


142  EATIONALISM   IN"   EUROPE. 

scarcely  ever  granted/  Dr.  Morton,  a  bishop  of  Liclifield,  in 
1620,  employed  himself  with  great,  and  at  last  successful, 
zeal  in  detecting  a  case  of  imposture  in  a  witch  story  which 
was  believed  by  a  Catholic  priest,'*  and  he  succeeded  in  saving 
the  life  of  the  accused.  At  a  still  earlier  period.  Dr.  Hars- 
net,  who  was  afterwards  Archbishop  of  York,  in  an  attack 
upon  '  Popish  impostures,'  boldly  enumerated  among  them 
most  of  the  forms  of  witchcraft,^  and  appears  to  have  been 
entirely  incredulous  on  the  subject.  He  was  undoubtedly 
wrong  in  ascribing  witchcraft  to  Catholicism,  for  it  flourish- 
ed at  least  as  vigorously  under  the  shadow  of  Puritanism ;  yet 
the  expression  of  so  bold  an  opinion  is  well  worthy  of  notice, 
and  was,  I  believe,  at  the  time  it  was  written,  a  unique  phe- 
nomenon among  the  English  clergy.*  Hutchinson  himself 
wrote  his  history  before  the  belief  was  entirely  extinct. 

But  that  Avhich  shows  most  strikingly  the  moderation  of 
the  Anglican  clergy,  is  the  comparatively  small  amount  of 
delusion  which  the  history  of  English  witchcraft  j^resents. 
On  the  Continent,  there  was  undoubtedly  much  imposition ; 
but,  for  the  most  part,  tlie  subject  presents  rather  the  aspect 
of  an  epidemic  or  a  mania.  The  religious  terrorism  acted  on 
diseased  imaginations,  coloured  every  form  of  madness,  and 
predisposed  the  minds  of  men  to  solve  every  difficulty  by  a 
supernatural  hypothesis.  In  England,  on  the  other  liand, 
imposture  appears  the  general  characteristic.     The  books  on 

'  Ilutcliinsou,  Dedication.  -  Ibid.  ^  Ibid. 

*  I,  at  least,  have  not  been  able  to  find  any  other  case ;  but  Sir  Kenelm 
Digby,  in  his  annotation  to  the  passage  from  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  which  I  have 
before  quoted,  says  of  the  belief:  'There  are  divines  of  great  note,  and  far 
from  any  suspicion  of  being  irreligious,  that  do  not  oppose  it.'  The  book  of 
Dr.  ITarsnet  is,  I  believe,  rare.  I  only  know  it  by  the  copious  extracts 
in  ITutcliinson.  There  is  a  notice  of  its  author  in  Neal's  IL'st.  of  the  Puri- 
tans. 


MAGIC    A^sD    WITCHCRAFT.  143 

the  subject  are  full  of  cases  of  jugglers'  tricks;^  and,  with 
the  exception  of  the  period  when  the  Puritans  were  in  tlie 
ascendant,  it  never  seems  to  have  assumed  the  appearance  of 
a  great  and  general  panic.  Indeed,  in  most  of  its  worst  man- 
ifestations, the  fanaticism  of  Puritanism  was  manifested.^ 

In  England,  that  finaticism  was  bridled  and  repressed. 
Tliere  was  one  country,  however,  in  which  it  obtained  an 
absolute  ascendancy.  Tliere  was  one  country  in  which  the 
Puritan  ministers  succeeded  in  moulding  alike  the  character 
and  the  habits  of  the  nation,  and  in  disseminating  their 
harsh  and  gloomy  tenets  through  every  section  of  society. 
While  England  was  breaking  loose  from  her  most  ancient 
superstitions,  and  advancing  with  gigantic  strides  along  the 
paths  of  knowledge,  Scotland  still  cowered  in  helpless  sub- 
jection before  her  clergy.  !N'ever  was  a  mental  servitude 
more  complete,  and  never  was  a  tyranny  maintained  with 
more  inexorable  barbarity.  Supported  by  public  opinion,  the 
Scottish  ministers  succeeded  in  overawing  all  opposition,  in 
prohibiting  the  faintest  expression  of  adverse  ojiinions,  in 
prying  into  and  controlling  the  most  private  concerns  of  do- 
mestic life  ;  in  compelling  every  one  to  conform  absolutely  to 
all  the  ecclesiastical  regulations  they  enjoined;  and  in,  at  last, 
directing  the  whole  scope  and  current  of  legislation.  They 
maintained  their  ascendancy  over  the  popular  mind  by  a  sys- 
tem of  religious  terrorism,  which  Ave  can  now  barely  conceive. 
The  misery  of  man,  the  anger  of  the  Almighty,  tlie  fearful 

^  See  Scott's  Discover >/,  jxissiiu. 

^  Sir  W.  Scott  has  well  noticed  this  influence  of  Puritanism  on  English 
fvitchcraft;  and,  in  comparing  the  diCferent  sections  of  the  Church,  he  says, 
On  the  whole,  the  Calvinists,  generally  speaking,  were,  of  all  the  contending 
sects,  the  most  suspicious  of  sorcery,  the  most  undoubting  believers  in  its  ex- 
istence, and  the  most  eager  to  follow  it  up  with  what  they  conceived  to  be  the 
due  punishment  of  the  most  fearful  of  crimes.'  {Demonology  and  Witchcraft^ 
Letter  8.) 


144  EATIOXALISM   EN"   EUROPE. 

power  and  continual  presence  of  Satan,  the  agonies  of  hell, 
were  the  constant  subjects  of  their  preaching.  All  the  most 
ghastly  forms  of  human  suffering  were  accumulated  as  faint 
images  of  the  eternal  doom  of  the  immense  majority  of  man- 
kind. Countless  miracles  were  represented  as  taking  place 
within  the  land,  but  they  were  almost  all  of  them  miracles 
of  terror.  Disease,  storm,  famine,  every  awful  calamity  that 
fell  upon  mankind,  or  blasted  the  produce  of  the  soil,  was 
attributed  to  the  direct  intervention  of  spirits ;  and  Satan 
himself  was  represented  as  constantly  appearing  in  a  visible 
form  upon  the  earth.'  Such  teaching  produced  its  natural 
effects.  In  a  land  where  credulity  was  universal,  in  a  land 
where  the  intellect  w^as  numbed  and  palsied  by  these  awful 
contemplations,  where  almost  every  form  of  amusement  was 
suppressed,  and  where  the  thoughts  of  men  were  concentrated 
with  an  undivided  energy  on  theological  conceptions,  such 
teaching  necessarily  created  the  superstition  of  witchcraft. 
Witchcraft  was  but  one  form  of  the  panic  it  produced ;  it 
was  but  the  reflection  by  a  diseased  imagination  of  the 
popular  theology.  We  accordingly  find  that  it  assumed  the 
most  frightful  proportions  and  the  darkest  character.  In 
other  lands,  the  superstition  was  at  least  mixed  with  much 
of  imposture ;  in  Scotland  it  appears  to  have  been  entirely 
undiluted.^  It  was  produced  by  the  teaching  of  the  clergy, 
and  it  was  everywhere  fostered  by  their  persecution.  Eager- 
ly, passionately,  with  a  thirst  for  blood  that  knew  no  mercy, 
with  a  zeal  that  never  tired,  did  they  accomplish  their  task. 

^  1  need  hardly  refer  to  the  noble  description  of  the  Scotch  Kirk  in  Buckle's 
History — a  description  the  substantial  justice  of  which  Avill  be  questioned  by 
no  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  history  of  Scotch  witchcraft.  On  the  multi- 
tude of  miracles  and  apparitions  of  Satan  that  were  believed,  see  pp.  349-369. 

'^  The  very  remarkable  fact,  that  no  cases  of  imposture  have  been  detected 
in  Scotch  witch-trials,  is  noted  by  Buckle,  vol.  ii.  pp.  189,  190. 


MAGIC    AND    WITCnCEAFT.  145 

Assembled  in  solemn  synod,  the  college  of  Aberdeen,  in  1603, 
enjoined  every  minister  to  take  two  of  the  elders  of  his  parish 
to  make  '  a  subtle  and  privy  inquisition,'  and  to  question  all 
the  parishioners  upon  oath  as  to  their  knowledge  of  witches/ 
Boxes  were  i^laced  in  the  churches  for  the  express  purpose  of 
receiving  the  accusations.'  When  a  woman  had  fallen  under 
suspicion,  the  minister  from  the  pul^^it  denounced  her  by 
name,  exhorted  his  parishioners  to  give  evidence  against  her, 
and  prohibited  any  one  from  sheltering  her.^  In  the  same 
spirit,  he  exerted  the  power  wdiich  was  given  him  by  a  paro- 
chial organisation,  elaborated  perhaps  more  skilfully  than 
any  other  in  Europe.  Under  these  circumstances,  the  witch- 
cases  seem  to  have  fallen  almost  entirely  into  the  hands  of 
the  clergy.  They  were  the  leading  commissioners.  Before 
them  the  confessions  were  taken.  They  were  the  acquiescing 
witnesses  or  the  directors  of  the  tortures  by  which  those 
confessions  w^ere  elicited.* 

And  when  we  read  the  nature  of  these  tortures,  w^hich 
were  worthy  of  an  oriental  imagination  ;  when  we  remember 
that  they  were  inflicted,  for  the  most  part,  on  old  'and  feeble 
and  half-doting  women,  it  is  difficult  to  repress  a  feeling  of  the 
deepest  abhorrence  for  those  men  w^ho  caused  and  who  encour- 
aged them.  If  the  witch  w^as  obdurate,  the  first,  and  it  was 
said  the  most  effectual,  method  of  obtaining  confession  was  by 
what  was  termed  '  w^aking  her.'     An  iron  bridle  or  hoop  was 


^  Daly  ell,  Darker  Superstitions  of  Scotland,  p.  624. 

""  Ibid.  p.  623.  3  Ibid.  p.  624,  &c. 

*  See  on  this  subject  Pitcairn's  Criminal  Trials  of  Scotland,  a  vast  re- 
pository of  original  documents  on  the  subject.  Pitcaim  gives  numbecs  of  these 
confessions.  He  adds,  '  The  confessions  were  commonly  taken  before  presby- 
teries, or  certain  special  commissioners,  who  usually  ranked  among  their  num- 
ber the  leading  clergy  of  those  districts  where  their  hapless  victims  resided.' 
(Vol.  iii.  p.  598.) 

VOL.  I. — 10 


14G  RATIONxVLISM   IN    EUROPE. 

bound  across  her  face  with  four  prongs,  which  were  thrust 
into  her  mouth.  It  Avas  fastened  behind  to  the  wall  by  a 
chain,  iii  such  a  manner  that  the  victim  was  unable  to  lie 
down  ;  and  in  this  position  she  was  sometimes  kept  for  several 
days,  while  men  were  constantly  with  her  to  prevent  her  from 
closing  her  eyes  for  a  moment  in  sleep.  ^  Partly  in  order  to 
effect  this  object,  and  partly  to  discover  the  insensible  mark 
which  was  the  sure  sign  of  a  wdtch,  long  pins  were  thrust 
into  her  body.'  At  the  same  time,  as  it  was  a  saying  in  Scot- 
land that  a  witch  would  never  confess  while  she  could  drink, 
excessive  thirst  was  often  added  to  her  tortures."  Some 
prisoners  have  been  waked  for  five  nights ;  one,  it  is  said, 
even  for  nine.* 

The  physical  and  mental  suffering  of  such  a  process  was 
sufficient  to  overcome  the  resolution  of  many,  and  to  distract 

^  '  One  of  the  most  powerful  incentives  to  confession  was  systematically  to 
deprive  the  suspected  witch  of  the  refreshment  of  her  natural  sleep. 
Iron  collars,  or  witches'  bridles,  are  still  preserved  in  various  parts  of  Scotland, 
which  had  been  used  for  such  iniquitous  purposes.  These  instruments  were  so 
constructed  that,  by  means  of  a  hoop  which  passed  over  the  head,  a  piece  of 
iron  having  four  points  or  prongs  was  forcibly  thrust  into  the  mouth,  two  of 
these  being  directed  to  the  tongue  and  palate,  the  others  pointing  outwards  to 
each  cheek.  This  infernal  machine  was  secured  by  a  padlock.  At  the  back 
of  the  collar  was  fixed  a  ring,  by  which  to  attach  the  witch  to  a  staple  in  the ' 
wall  of  her  cell.  Thus  equipped,  and  night  and  day  waked  and  watched  by 
some  skilful  person  appointed  by  her  inquisitors,  the  unhappy  creature,  after  a 
few  days  of  such  discipline,  maddened  by  the  misery  of  her  forlorn  and  help- 
less state,  would  be  rendered  fit  for  confessing  anything,  in  order  to  be  rid  of 
the  dregs  of  her  wretched  life.  At  intervals  fresh  examinations  took  place, 
and  these  were  repeated  from  time  to  time  until  her  "  contumacy,"  as  it  was 
termed,  was  subdued.  The  clergy  and  kirk  sessions  appear  to  have  been  the 
unwearied  instruments  of  "  purging  the  land  of  witchcraft ; "  and  to  them,  in 
the  Jirst  instance^  all  the  complaints  and  informations  ivcre  made.''  (Pitcaim, 
vol.  i.  part  2,  p.  50.) 

^  Dalyell,  p.  645.     The  '  prickers '  formed  a  regular  profession  in  Scotland 

^  Burt's  Letters  from  the  North  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.  pp.  227-234. 

*  Dalyell,  p.  6-15. 


3IAGIC    AND    WITCnCRAFT.  14Y 

the  iinderstandiiig  of  not  a  few.  But  other  and  perhaps 
worse  tortures  were  in  reserve.  TJie  three  principal  that 
were  habitually  applied,  were  the  pennywinkis,  the  boots, 
and  the  caschielawis.  The  first  Avas  a  kind  of  thumb-screw ; 
the  second  was  a  frame  in  which  the  leg  was  inserted,  and 
in  which  it  was  broken  by  wedges,  driven  in  by  a  hamir.er; 
the  tliird  vfas  also  an  iron  frame  for  the  leg,  which  was  from 
time  to  time  heated  over  a  brazier/  Fire-matches  were  some- 
times applied  to  the  body  of  the  victim."  We  read,  in  a  con- 
temporary legal  register,  of  one  man  who  was  kept  for  forty- 
eight  hours  in  'vehement  tortour'  in  the  caschielawis ;  and 
of  another  who  remained  in  the  same  frightful  machine  for 
eleven  days  and  eleven  nights,  whose  legs  were  broken  daily 
for  fourteen  days  in  the  boots,  and  who  was  so  scourged  that 
the  whole  skin  was  torn  from  his  body.^  This  wasj  it  is  true, 
censured  as  an  extreme  case,  but  it  was  only  an  excessive 
application  of  the  common  torture. 

How  many  confessions  were  extorted,  and  how  many 
victims  perished  by  these  means,  it  is  now  impossible  to  say. 
A  vast  number  of  depositions  and  confessions  are  preserved, 
but  they  were  only  taken  before  a  single  court,  and  many 
others  took  cognisance  of  the  crime.  We  know  that  in  1662, 
more  than  150  persons  were  accused  of  witclicraft ;  *  and  that 
in  the  preceding  year  no  less  than  fourteen  commissions  had 
been  issued  for  the  trials.'  After  these  facts,  it  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  notice  how  one  traveller  casually  mentions 
having  seen  nine  women  burning  together  at  Leith  in  1664, 
or  how,  in  1678,  nine  others  were  condemned  in  a  single 


^  Pitcairn.  '  Dalyell,  p.  657. 

^  Pitcairn,  vol.  i.  part  ii.  p.  S'76.  The  two  cases  were  in  the  same  trial  in 
1596. 

*  Dalyell,  p.  669  ^  Pitcairn,  vol.  iii.  p.  597.    . 


148  RATIOXALISM   J^   EUROPE. 

day/  The  charges  were,  indeed,  of  the  most  comprehensive 
order,  and  the  widest  fancies  of  Sprenger  and  Xider  were 
defended  by  the  Presbyterian  divines.^  In  most  Catholic 
countries,  it  was  a  grievance  of  the  clergy  that  the  civil 
power  refused  to  execute  those  who  only  employed  their 
power  in  curing  disease.  In  Scotland  such  persons  were 
unscrupulously  put  to  death.^  The  witches  were  commonly 
strangled  before  they  were  burnt,  but  this  merciful  provision 
was  very  frequently  omitted.  An  Earl  of  Mar  (who  appears 
to  have  been  the  only  person  sensible  of  the  inhumanity  of 
the  ^proceedings)  tells  how,  with  a  piercing  yell,  some  women 
once  broke  half-burnt  from  the  slow  fire  that  consumed  them, 
struggled  for  a  few  moments  with  despairing  energy  among 
the  spectators,  but  soon  with  shrieks  of  blasphemy  and  wild 
protestations  of  innocence  sank  writhing  in  agony  amid  the 
flames.* 

The  contemplation  of  such  scenes  as  these  is  one  of  the 
most  painful  duties  that  can  devolve  upon  the  historian ;  but 

^  Dalyell,  pp.  669,  670. 

-  For  a  curious  instance  of  this,  see  that  strange  book,  '  The  Secret  Com- 
mo7iwealth^^  pubhshed  in  1691,  by  Eobert  Kirk,  minister  of  Aberfoil.  He  re- 
presents evil  spirits  in  human  form  as  habitually  living  among  the  Highlanders, 
Succubi,  or,  as  the  Scotch  called  them,  Leauuain  Sith,  seem  to  have  been 
especially  common;  and  Mr.  Kirk  (who  identifies  them  with  the  ^familiar 
spirits '  of  Deuteronomy)  complains  very  sadly  of  the  affection  of  many  young 
Scotchmen  for  the  'fair  ladies  of  this  aerial  order'  (p.  85).  Capt.  Burt  relates 
a  long  discussion  he  had  with  a  minister  on  the  subject  of  old  women  turning 
themselves  into  cats.  The  minister  said  that  one  man  succeeded  in  cutting  off 
the  leg  of  a  cat  who  attacked  him,  that  the  leg  immediately  turned  into  that 
of  an  old  woman,  and  that  four  ministers  signed  a  certificate  attesting  the  fact 
(vol.  i.  pp.  2'7l-2'77).  One  of  the  principal  Scotch  writers  on  these  matters 
was  Sinclair,  who  was  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  at  GlasgOAv. 

'  Wright's  >Sbrc(?ry,  vol.  i.  pp.  165,  166.  Even  to  consult  witli  -witches 
was  made  capital. 

*  Pitcairn,  vol.  iii.  p.  598.  Another  Earl  of  Mar  had  been  himself  bled  to 
death  for  having,  as  was  alleged,  consulted  with  witches  how  to  shorten  the 
life  of  James  III.     (Scott's  Demonology^  let.  ix.) 


MAGIC   AXD   WITCHCRAFT.  149 

it  is  one  from  wliicli  lie  must  not  slirink,  if  he  Avould  form  a 
just  estimate  of  tlie  past.  There  are  opinions  that  may  be 
traced  from  age  to  age  by  footsteps  of  blood ;  and  the  inten- 
sity of  the  suffering  they  caused  is  a  measure  of  the  intensity 
with  which  they  were  realised.  Scotch  witchcraft  was  but 
the  result  of  Scotch  Puritanism,  and  it  faithfully  reflected  the 
character  of  its  parent.  It  is  true  that,  before  the  Reforma- 
tion, the  people  had  been  grossly  ignorant  and  superstitious ; 
but  it  is  also  true,  that  witchcraft  in  its  darker  forms  was  so 
rare  that  no  law  was  made  on  the  subject  till  1563 ;  that  the 
law  was  not  carried  to  its  full  severity  till  1590  ;  that  the 
delusion  invariably  accompanied  the  religious  terrorism  which 
the  Scotch  clergy  so  zealously  maintained;  and  that  those 
clergy,  all  over  Scotland,  aj^plauded  and  stimulated  the  per- 
secution.^ The  ascendancy  they  had  obtained  was  bound- 
less, and  in  this  respect  their  power  was  entirely  undisputed. 
One  word  from  them  might  have  arrested  the  tortures,  but 
that  word  was  never  spoken.  Their  conduct  implies,  not 
merely  a  mental  aberration,  but  also  a  callousness  of  feeling 
which  has  rarely  been  attained  in  a  long  career  of  vice.  Yet 
these  were  men  who  had  often  shown,  in  the  most  trying 
circumstances,  the  highest  and  the  most  heroic  virtues. 
They  were  men  whose  courage  had  never  flinched  when 
persecution  was  raging  around ;  men  who  had  never  paltered 
with  their  consciences  to  attain  the  favours  of  a  king ;  men 

^  Sir  Walter  Scott  seems  to  think  that  the  first  great  outburst  of  persecu- 
tion began  when  James  YI.  went  to  Denmark  to  fetch  his  bride.  Before  his 
d(;parture,  he  exhorted  the  clergy  to  assist  the  magistrates,  which  they  did,  and 
most  especially  in  matters  of  witchcraft.  The  king  was  himself  perfectly  infat- 
uated with  the  subject,  and  had  this  one  bond  of  union  with  the  ministers ; 
and,  as  Sir  W.  S.  says,  '  during  the  halcyon  period  of  union  between  kirk  and 
king,  their  hearty  agreement  on  the  subject  of  witchcraft  failed  not  to  heat  the 
fiires  against  all  persons  suspected  of  such  iniquity.'  (Demonoloffi/,  letter  ix.) 
See  also  Linton's  Witch  Stories^  p.  5. 


150  EATIOXALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

whose  self-devotion  and  zeal  in  their  sacred  calling  had 
seldom  been  surpassed;  men  who  in  all  the  private  relations 
of  life  were  doubtless  amiable  and  affectionate.  It  is  not  on 
them  that  our  blame  should  fall ;  it  is  on  the  system  that 
made  them  what  they  were.  They  were  but  illustrations  of 
the  great  truth,  that  when  men  have  come  to  regard  a  certain 
class  of  their  fellow-creatures  as  doomed  by  the  Almighty  to 
eternal  and  excruciating  agonies,  and  when  their  theology 
directs  their  minds  with  intense  and  realising  earnestness  to 
the  contemplation  of  such  agonies,  the  result  will  be  an 
indifference  to  the  suffering  of  those  whom  they  deem  the 
enemies  of  their  God,  as  absolute  as  it  is  perhaps  possible  for 
human  nature  to  attain. 

In  Scotland  the  character  of  theology  was  even  more 
hard  and  unpitying  than  in  other  countries  where  Puritanism 
existed,  on  account  of  a  special  circumstance  which  in  some 
respects  reflects  great  credit  on  its  teachers.  The  Scotch 
kirk  was  the  result  of  a  democratic  movement,  and  for  some 
time,  almost  alone  in  Euroj)e,  it  was  the  unflinching  cham- 
pion of  political  liberty.  It  was  a  Scotchman,  Buchanan, 
who  first  brought  liberal  j^rinciples  into  clear  relief  It  was 
the  Scotch  clergy  who  uj^held  them  with  a  courage  that  can 
hardly  be  overrated.  Their  circumstances  made  them  liber- 
als, and  they  naturally  sought  to  clothe  their  liberalism  in  a 
theological  garb.  They  soon  discovered  jDrecedents  for  their 
rebellions  in  the  history  of  the  judges  and  captains  of  the 
Jews ;  and  accordingly  the  union  of  an  intense  theological, 
and  an  intense  liberal  feeling,  made  them  revert  to  the  scenes 
of  the  Old  Testament,  to  the  sufferings  and  also  the  conquests 
of  the  Jews,  with  an  affection  that  seems  noAV  almost  incon- 
ceivable.  Their  whole  theology  took  an  Old  Testament  cast. 
Their  modes  of  thought,  their  very  phraseology,  were  de- 


MAGIC   AND   WITCIICEAFT.  151 

vired  from  that  source  ;  and  the  constant  contemplation  of  the 
massacres  of  Canaan,  and  of  the  provisions  of  the  Levitical 
code,  produced  its  natural  effect  upon  their  minds/ 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  write  a  history  of  the  decline  of 
■witchcraft  in  Scotland,  for  the  change  of  opinions  Avas  almost 
entirely  unmarked  by  incidents  on  which  we  can  dwell.  At 
one  period  we  find  every  one  predisposed  to  believe  in 
witches.  At  a  later  period  we  find  that  this  predisposition 
has  silently  passed  away.^  Two  things  only  can,  I  think,  be 
asserted  on  the  subject  with  confidence — that  the  sceptical 
movement  advanced  much  more  slowly  in  Scotland  than  in 
England,  and  that  the  ministers  were  among  the  latest  to 
yield  to  it.  Until  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  "*• 
trials  were  sufficiently  common,  but  after  this  time  they 
became  rare.  It  is  generally  said  that  the  last  execution  Avas 
in  1722 ;  but  Captain  Burt,  who  visited  the  country  in  1730, 
speaks  of  a  Avoman  who  Avas  burnt  as  late  as  1727.'  The 
same  very  keen  observer  was  greatly  struck  by  the  extent  to 
which  the  belief  still  continued  in  Scotland,  at  a  time  Avhen 
it  was  quite  abandoned  by  the  educated  classes  in  England ; 
and  he  found  its  most  ardent  supporters  among  the  Presby- 
terian ministers.  As  late  as  1773,  '  the  divines  of  the  Asso- 
ciated Presbytery '  passed  a  resolution  declaring  their  belief 
in  witchcraft,  and  deploring  the  scepticism  that  was  general.* 

^  It  is  rather  remarkable  that  Bodia  had  also  formed  his  theology  almost 
exclusively  from  the  Old  Testament,  his  reverence  for  which  was  so  great  that 
some  (Grotius  and  Ilallam  among  others)  have  questioned  whether  he  believed 
the  New. 

^  The  silent  unreasoning  character  of  the  decline  of  Scotch  witchcraft  has 
been  noticed  by  Dugald  Stewart,  Dissert,  p.  508. 

^  Burt's  Letters  from  the  Xorthof  Scotland,  vol.  i.  pp.  227-23-i,  and  271- 
277.  I  suspect  Burt  has  misdated  the  execution  that  took  place  iu  1722, 
placing  it  in  1727. 

*  Macaulay,  Hist.,  vol.  iii.  p.  70G. 


152  RATIONALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

I  have  now  completed  my  rev^iew  of  the  history  of  witch- 
craft, in  its  relation  to  the  theologies  of  Rome,  of  England, 
and  of  Geneva.  I  have  shown  that  its  causes  are  to  bo 
sought,  not  within  the  narrow  circle  of  doctrines  and  phe- 
nomena that  are  comprised  under  the  name,  but  in  the  gen- 
eral intellectual  and  religious  condition  of  the  ages  in  which 
it  flourished.  I  have  shown,  in  other  Avords,  that  witchcraft 
resulted,  not  from  isolated  circumstances,  but  from  modes  of 
thought ;  that  it  grew  out  of  a  certain  intellectual  tempera- 
ture acting  on  certain  theological  tenets,  and  reflected  with 
almost  startling  vividness  each  great  intellectual  change. 
Arising  amid  the  ignorance  of  an  early  civilisation,  it  was 
quickened  into  an  intenser  life  by  a  theological  struggle 
which  allied  terrorism  with  credulity,  and  it  declined  under 
the  influence  of  that  great  rationalistic  movement  which, 
since  the  seventeenth  century,  has  been  on  all  sides  encroach- 
ing on  theology.  I  have  dwelt  upon  the  decadence  of  the 
superstition  at  considerable  length ;  for  it  was  at  once  one 
of  the  earliest  and  one  of  the  most  imj^ortant  conquests  of 
the  spirit  of  rationalism.  There  are  very  few  examples  of  a 
change  of  belief  that  was  so  strictly  normal,  so  little  accele- 
rated by  sectarian  passions  or  individual  genius,  and  there- 
fore so  well  suited  to  illustrate  the  laws  of  intellectual  de- 
velopment. Besides  this,  tlie  fact  that  the  belief  when  real- 
ised was  always  followed  by  jDersecution,  enables  us  to  trace 
its  successive  stages  with  more  than  common  accuracy, 
while  the  period  that  has  elapsed  since  its  destruction  has, 
in  a  great  measure,  removed  the  subject  from  the  turbid  at- 
mosphere of  controversy. 

It  is  impossible  to  leave  the  history  of  witchcraft  with- 
out reflecting  how  vast  an  amount  of  suffering  has,  in  at 
least  this  respect,  been  removed  by  the  2:)rogress  of  a  ration- 


MAGIC    AND   WITCHCRAFT.  153 

alistic  civilisation.  I  know  tliat  when  we  remember  the 
frio^htful  calamities  that  have  from  time  to  time  flowed  from 
theological  divisions ;  when  we  consider  the  countless  mar- 
tyro  who  have  perished  in  the  dungeon  or  at  the  stake,  the 
^millions  who  have  fallen  in  the  religious  wars,  the  elements 
of  almost  undying  dissension  that  have  been  planted  in  so 
many  noble  nations,  and  have  paralysed  so  many  glorious 
enterprises,  the  fate  of  a  few  thousand  innocent  persons  who 
were  burnt  alive  seems  to  sink  into  comparative  insignifi- 
cance. Yet  it  is  probable  that  no  class  of  victims  endured 
sufferings  so  unalloyed  and  so  intense.  Kot  for  them  the 
wild  fanaticism  that  nerves  the  soul  against  danger,  and  al- 
most steels  the  body  against  torments.  Xot  for  them  the 
assurance  of  a  glorious  eternity,  that  has  made  the  martyr 
look  with  exultation  on  the  rising  flame  as  on  the  Elijah's 
chariot  that  is  to  bear  his  soul  to  heaven.  ISTot  for  them  the 
solace  of  lamenting  friends,  or  the  consciousness  that  their 
memories  would  be  cherished  and  honoured  by  j^osterity. 
They  died  alone,  hated  and  unpitied.  They  were  deemed 
by  all  mankind  the  worst  of  criminals.  Their  very  kinsmen 
shrank  from  them  as  tainted  and  accursed.  The  superstitions 
they  had  imbibed  in  childhood,  blending  with  the  illusions 
of  age,  and  with  the  horrors  of  their  position,  persuaded 
them  in  many  cases  that  they  were  indeed  the  bond-slaves 
of  Satan,  and  were  about  to  exchange  their  torments  upon 
earth  for  an  agony  that  was  as  excruciating,  and  was  eter- 
nal. And,  besides  all  this,  we  have  to  consider  the  terrors 
which  the  belief  must  have  spread  through  the  people  at 
large ;  we  have  to  j^icture  the  anguish  of  the  mother,  as  she 
imagined  that  it  was  in  the  power  of  one  whom  she  had  of- 
fended to  blast  in  a  moment  every  object  of  her  aflection  ; 
we  have  to  conceive,  above  all,  the  awful  shadow^  that  the 


154:  KATIONALISM   IX   EUKOl'ii:. 

dread  of  accusation  must  have  thrown  on  the  enfeebled 
faculties  of  age,  and  the  bitterness  it  must  have  added  to 
desertion  and  to  solitude.  All  these  sufferings  were  the  re- 
sult of  a  single  superstition,  which  the  spirit  of  rationalism 
has  destroyed. 


CHAPTER  II. 

0:^"  THE  DECLimNG  SENSE   OF  THE  mKACULOUS. 


THE   MIRACLES   OF  THE   CHURCH. 

The  same  habits  of  mind  which  indiicecl  men  at  first  to 
recoil  from  the  belief  in  witchcraft  with  an  instinctive  and 
involuntary  repugnance  as  intrinsically  incredible,  and  after- 
wards openly  to  repudiate  it,  have  operated  in  a  very  similar 
manner,  and  with  very*  similar  effects,  upon  the  belief  in 
modern  miracles.  The  triumph,  however,  has  not  been  in 
this  case  so  complete,  for  the  Church  of  Rome  still  maintains 
the  continuance  of  miraculous  powers ;  nor  has  the  decay 
been  so  strictly  normal,  for  the  fact  that  most  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  miracles  are  associated  with  distinctively  Roman 
Catholic  doctrines  has  introduced  much  miscellaneous  con- 
troversy into  the  question.  But,  notwithstanding  these  con- 
siderations, the  general  outlines  of  the  movement  are  clearly 
visible,  and  they  are  well  deserving  of  a  brief  notice. 

If  we  would  realise  the  modes  of  thought  on  this  subject 
prior  to  the  Reformation,  we  must  quite  dismiss  from  our 
minds  the  ordinary  Protestant  notion  that  miracles  were  very 
rare  and  exceptional  phenomena,  the  primary  object  of  which 
was  always  to  accredit  the  teacher  of  some  divine  truth  that 


156  RATIONALISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

could  not  otherwise  be  established.  In  the  writings  of  the 
Fathers,  and  especially  of  those  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  cen- 
turies, we  find  them  not  only  spoken  of  as  existing  in  profu- 
sion, but  as  being  directed  to  the  most  various  ends.  They 
were  a  kind  of  celestial  charity,  alleviating  the  sorrows, 
healing  the  diseases,  and  supplying  the  wants  of  the  faithful. 
They  were  frequent  incitements  to  piety,  stimulating  the  de- 
votions of  the  languid,  and  rewarding  the  patience  of  the 
fervent.  They  w^ere  the  signs  of  great  and  saintly  virtue, 
securing  universal  respect  for  those  who  had  attained  a  high 
degree  of  sanctity,  or  assisting  them  in  the  performance  of 
their  more  austere  devotions.  Thus,  one  saint  having  retired 
into  the  desert  to  lead  a  life  of  mortification,  the  birds  daily 
brought  liim  a  supply  of  food,  which  was  just  sufiicient  for 
his  wants ;  and  when  a  kindred  spirit  visited  him  in  his  re- 
tirement, they  doubled  the  supply ;  and  when  he  died,  two 
lions  issued  from  the  desert  to  dig  his  grave,  uttered  a  long- 
howl  of  mourning  over  his  body,  and  knelt  down  to  beg  a 
blessing  from  the  survivor.^  Thus,  another  saint,  who  was 
of  opinion  that  a  monk  should  never  see  himself  naked,  and 
who  had,  therefore,  scrupulously  abstained  from  washing 
since  his  conversion,  stood  one  day  in  despair  upon  the  banks 
of  a  bridgeless  stream,  when  an  angel  descended  to  assist 
him,  and  transported  him  in  safety  across  the  dreaded  ele- 
ment.' Besides  this,  the  power  of  magic  was,  as  Ave  have 
seen,  fully  recognised,  both  by  Christians  and  Pagans,  and 
each  admitted  the  reality  of  the  miracles  of  the  other, 
though  ascribing  them  to  the  agency  of  demons.^ 


^  Paul  the  Hermit.     Sec  his  Life  by  St.  Jerome.     The  visitor  of  Paul  was 
St.  Anthony,  the  first  of  the  hermits, 
"^  Ammon  (Socrates,  lib.  iv.  c.  23). 
■  See  some  admirable  remarks  ou  this  subject  in  Maury,  Lcgendes  Piezcses, 


THE   MIRACLES    OF   THE    CIIUECII.  157 

If  we  pass  from  the  Fathers  into  the  middle  ages,  we  find 
ourselves  in  an  atmosphere  that  was  dense  and  charged  with 
tlie  supernatural.  The  demand  for  miracles  was  almost 
boundless,  and  the  supply  was  equal  to  the  demand.  Men 
of  extraordinary  sanctity  seemed  naturally  and  habitually  to 
obtain  the  power  of  performing  them,  and  their  lives  are 
crowded  with  their  achievements,  which  were  attested  by  the 
highest  sanction  of  the  Church.  Xothing  could  be  more 
common  than  for  a  holy  man  to  be  lifted  up  from  the  floor  in 
the  midst  of  his^  devotions,  or  to  be  visited  by  the  Virgin  or 
by  an  angel.  There  was  scarcely  a  town  that  could  not 
show  some  relic  that  had  cured  the  sick,  or  some  imaire  that 
had  opened  and  shut  its  eyes,  or  bowed  its  head  to  an  ear- 
nest Avorshipper.  It  was  somewhat  more  extraordinary,  but 
not  in  the  least  incredible,  that  the  fish  should  have  thronged 
to  the  shore  to  hear  St.  Anthony  preach,  or  that  it  should  be 
necessary  to  cut  the  hair  of  the  crucifix  at  Burgos  once  a 
month,  or  that  the  Virgin  of  the  Pillar,  at  Saragossa,  should, 
at  the  prayer  of  one  of  her  worshij^pers,  have  restored  a  leg 
that  had  been  amputated.^  Men  who  were  afflicted  with 
apparently  hoj)eless  disease,  started  in  a  moment  into  perfect 
health  when  brought  into  contact  with  a  relic  of  Christ  or  of 
the  Virgin.     The  virtue  of  such  relics  radiated  in  blessings 

pp.  240-244.  Also  Farmer,  on  Demoniacs.  There  were  exorcists,  both 
among  the  Christians,  Pagans,  and  Jews  ;  and  though  they  were  not  regularly 
formed  into  an  order  till  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  they  seem  to  have 
pi'actised  from  almost  the  beginning.  For  much  curious  evidence  on  the  sub- 
ject, see  Middleton,  Free  Enquire/,  pp.  85-87 ;  Bingham,  Antiquities  of  the 
Christian  Churchy  book  iii.  c.  4. 

-  There  is  a  picture  of  the  transaction  in  the  cathedral  of  Saragossa,  op- 
posite the  image.  A  group  of  extremely  pretty  angels  are  represented  as 
fitting  on  a  leg  (ready  made),  while  the  patient  is  calmly  sleeping.'  I  believe, 
however,  that  the  more  approved  story  is,  that  the  leg  gradually  grew.  Thia 
is  a  ranacle  about  wliich  a  vast  amount  has  been  written,  and  which  the  Span- 
iali  theologians  are  said  to  regard  as  peculiarly  well  established. 


15S  RATION ALISM  IN   EUEOPE. 

all  around  them.  Glorious  visions  heralded  their  discovery, 
and  angels  have  transported  them  through  the  air.  If  a  mis- 
sionary went  abroad  among  the  heathen,  supernatural  signs 
confounded  his  opponents,  and  made  the  powers  of  darkness 
fly  before  his  steps.  If  a  Christian  prince  unsheathed  his 
sword  in  an  ecclesiastical  cause,  apostles  had  been  known  to 
combat  with  his  army,  and  avenging  miracles  to  scatter  his 
enemies.  If  an  unjust  suspicion  attached  to  an  innocent  man, 
he  had  immediately  recourse  to  an  ordeal  which  cleared  his 
character  and  condemned  his  accusers.  All^  this  was  going 
on  habitually  in  every  part  of  Europe  without  exciting  the 
smallest  astonishment  or  scepticism.  Those  who  know  how 
thoroughly  the  supernatural  element  pervades  the  old  lives 
of  the  saints,  may  form  some  notion  of  the  multitude  of 
miracles  that  were  related  and  generally  believed,  from  the 
fact  that  M.  Guizot  has  estimated  the  number  of  these  lives, 
accumulated  in  the  Bollandist  Collection,  at  about  25,000.^ 
Yet  this  was  but  one  department  of  miracles.  It  does  not 
include  the  thousands  of  miraculous  images  and  pictures  that 
were  operating  throughout  Christendom,  and  the  countless 
apparitions  and  miscellaneous  prodigies  that  were  taking- 
place  in  every  country,  and  on  all  occasions.  Whenever  a 
saint  Avas  canonised,  it  was  necessary  to  prove  that  he  had 
worked  miracles ;  but  except  on  those  occasions  miraculous 
accounts  seem  never  to  have  been  questioned.     The   most 

^  Hist,  de  Civilisation,  Lecon  XVIT.  The  Bollandist  Collection  was  begun 
at  Antwerp  by  a  Jesuit  named  Bolland,  in  1643,  was  stopped  for  a  time  by 
the  French  Revolution,  but  renewed  under  the  patronage  of  the  Belgian  Cham- 
bers. It  was  intended  to  contain  a  complete  collection  of  all  the  original 
documents  on  the  subject.  The  saints  are  placed  according  to  the  calendar. 
Fifty-five  large  folio  volumes  have  been  published,  but  they  only  extend  to  the 
end  nf  October.  See  a  very  beautiful  essay  on  the  subject  by  Rcnan,  Iifudes 
Religieims.  M.  Renan  says :  '  II  me  semblc  que  pour  un  vrai  philosophe  un 
prison  ccUulairc  avec  ccseinquante-clnq  volumes  in-folio,  serait  unvrui  paradia.' 


THE    MIKACLES    OF    THE    CHUECH.  159 

educated,  as  well  as  the  most  ignorant,  habitually  resorted  to 
the  supernatural  as  the  simplest  explanation  of  every  dif- 
ficulty. 

All  this  has  noAV"  passed  away.  It  has  passed  away,  not 
only  in  lands  where  Protestantism  is  triumphant,  but  also  in 
those  where  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  is  still  acknowledged, 
and  where  the  mediaeval  saints  are  still  venerated.  St.  Jan- 
uarius,  it  is  true,  continues  to  liquefy  at  N'aples,  and  the  j^as- 
torals  of  French  bishops  occasionally  relate  apparitions  of  the 
Virgin  among  very  ignorant  and  superstitious  peasants  ;  but 
the  implicit,  undiscriminating  acquiescence  with  Avhich  such 
narratives  were  once  received,  has  long  since  been  replaced 
by  a  derisive  incredulity.  Those  Avho  know  the  tone  that  is 
habitually  adopted  on  these  subjects  by  the  educated  in 
Roman  Catholic  countries,  will  admit  that,  so  far  from  being 
a  subject  for  triumphant  exultation,  the  very  few  modern 
miracles  which  are  related  are  everywhere  regarded  as  a 
scandal,  a  stumbling-block,  and  a  difficulty.  Most  educated 
persons  speak  of  them  with  undisguised  scorn  and  incredulity ; 
some  attempt  to  evade  or  explain  them  away  by  a  natural 
hypothesis;  a  very  few  faintly  and  apologetically  defend 
them.  Nor  can  it  be  said  that  what  is  manifested  is  merely 
a  desire  for  a  more  minute  and  accurate  examination  of  the 
evidence  by  which  they  are  supported.  On  the  contrary,  it 
will,  I  think,  be  admitted  that  these  alleged  miracles  are 
commonly  rejected  with  an  assurance  that  is  as  peremptory 
and  unreasoning  as  that  with  which  they  Avould  have  been 
once  received.  Xothing  can  be  more  rare  than  a  serious  ex- 
amination, by  those  who  disbelieve  them,  of  the  testimony  on 
which  they  rest.  They  are  repudiated,  not  because  they  are 
unsupported,  but  because  they  are  miraculous.  Men  are 
prepared  to  admit  almost  any  conceivable  concurrence  of 


160  EATIONALISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

natural  improbabilities  rather  than  resort  to  the  hypothesis 
of  supernatural  interference;  and  this  spirit  is  exhibited,  not 
merely  by  open  sceptics,  but  by  men  who  are  sincere,  though, 
perhaps,  not  very  fervent  believers  in  their  Church.  It  is 
the  prevailing  characteristic  of  that  vast  body  of  educated 
persons,  whose  lives  are  chiefly  spent  in  secular  pursuits,  and 
wlio,  wdiile  they  receive  with  unen quiring  faith  the  great 
doctrines  of  Catholicism,  and  duly  perform  its  leading  duties, 
derive  their  mental  tone  and  colouring  from  the  general  spirit 
of  their  age.  If  you  speak  to  them  on  the  subject,  they  will 
reply  with  a  shrug  and  with  a  smile  ;  they  will  tell  you  that 
it  is  indeed  melancholy  that  such  narratives  should  be  put 
forth  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century ;  they  will 
treat  them  as  palpable  anachronisms,  as  obviously  and  in- 
trinsically incredible;  but  they  w^ill  add  that  it  is  not  neces- 
sary for  all  Roman  Catholics  to  believe  them,  and  that  it  is 
unfair  to  judge  the  enlightened  members  of  the  Church  by 
the  measure  of  the  superstitions  of  the  ignorant. 

That  this  is  the  general  tone  adojDted  by  the  great  major- 
ity of  educated  Roman  Catholics,  both  in  their  writings  and 
in  their  conversation,  will  scarcely  be  a  matter  of  dispute. 
It  is  also  very  manifest  that  it  is  the  direct  j^i'oc^^^ct  and 
measure  of  civilisation.  The  districts  where  an  account  of  a 
modern  miracle  is  received  with  least  derision,  are  precisely 
those  which  are  most  torpid  and  most  isolated.  The  classes 
Avhose  liabits  of  thought  are  least  shocked  by  such  an  account, 
are  those  which  are  least  educated  and  least  influenced  by 
the  broad  current  of  civilisation.  If  we  put  aside  the  clergy 
and  those  who  are  most  immediately  under  their  influence, 
we  find  that  this  liabit  of  mind  is  the  invariable  concomitant 
of  education,  and  is  the  especial  characteristic  of  those  persons 
whose  intellectual  sympathies  are  mos*  extended,  and  who, 


THE   MIEACLES    OF    THE    CHEECH.  101 

therefore,  represent  most  faithfully  the  various  mtellectual 
influences  of  their  time.  If  you  connect  a  nation  which  has 
long  been  insulated  and  superstitious  with  the  general  move- 
ment of  European  civilisation  by  means  of  railways  or  a  free 
press  or  the  removal  of  protecting  laws,  you  will  most  infal- 
libly inoculate  it  with  this  spirit. 

It  is  further  evident  that  this  habit  of  thought  is  not  a 
merely  ephemeral  movement,  produced  by  some  exceptional 
event,  or  by  some  transient  literary  fashion  peculiar  to  our 
ovrn  century.  All  history  shows  that,  in  exact  proportion 
as  nations  'advance  in  civilisation,  the  accounts  of  miracles 
taking  place  among  them  become  rarer  and  rarer,  until  at 
last  they  entirely  cease. ^  In  this  fact  we  have  a  clear  indi- 
cation of  the  decline  of  the  old  habits  of  thought ;  for  those 
who  regard  these  miracles  as  real  ascribe  their  disappearance 
to  the  progress  of  incredulity,  while  those  who  disbelieve 
them  maintain  that  they  were  the  results  of  a  pai'ticular  di- 
rection given  to  the  imagination,  and  of  a  particular  form  of 
imposition  created  and  suggested  by  the  mediaeval  habits  of 
thought.  In  other  words,  the  old  spirit,  according  to  one 
class,  is  the  condition,  and  according  to  the  other  class,  the 
cause  of  the  miracles  ;  and,  therefore,  the  cessation  of  mirac- 
ulous narratives,  when  unaccompanied  by  an  avowed  change 
of  creed,  implies  the  decay  of  that  spirit. 

If  these  propositions  be  true — and  I  scarcely  think  that 
any  candid  person  who  seriously  examines  the  subject  can 

^  This  has  been  noticed  in  an  extremely  ingenious  fashion  by  Bisluip 
Spratt: — '  God  never  yet  left  himself  without  a  witness  in  the  world ;  and  it  is 
observable  that  He  has  commonly  chosen  the  dark  and  ignorant  ages  wherein 
to  w^ork  miracles,  but  saldom  or  never  the  times  when  natural  knowledge  pre- 
vailed :  for  He  knew  there  was  not  so  much  need  to  make  use  of  extraordinary 
signs  when  men  were  diligent  in  the  works  of  His  hands  and  attentive  to 
the  impressions  of  His  footsteps  in  His  creatures.'  [Hist,  of  Royal  Society, 
p.  350.) 

VOL.  I. — 11 


162  EATIOXALISM   TX    EUROPE. 

question  them — they  lead  irresistibly  to  a  very  important 
general  conclusion.  They  show  that  the  repugnance  of  men 
to  believe  miraculous  narratives  is  in  direct  proportion  to 
the  progress  of  civilisation  and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge. 
It  is  not  simply  that  science  explains  some  things  which  were 
formerly  deemed  supernatural,  such  as  comets  or  eclipses. 
We  find  the  same  incredulity  manifested  in  Roman  Catholic 
countries  towards  alleged  miracles  by  saints,  or  relics,  or 
images,  on  which  science  can  throw  no  direct  light,  and 
which  contain  no  element  of  improbability,  except  that  they 
are  miraculous.  It  is  not  simply  that  civilisation  strength- 
ens Protestantism  at  the  expense  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 
We  find  this  spirit  displayed  by  Roman  Catholics  them- 
selves, though  the  uniform  tendency  of  their  theology  is  to 
destroy  all  notion  of  the  antecedent  improbability  of  modern 
miracles ;  and  though  the  fact  that  these  miracles  are  only 
alleged  in  their  own  Church  should  invest  them  with  a  pecu- 
liar attraction.  It  is  not  even  that  there  is  an  increasing 
repugnance  to  an  unscrutinising  and  blindfold  faith.  Alleged 
miracles  are  rejected  with  immediate  unreasoning  incredulity 
by  the  members  of  a  Church  which  has  done  everything  in 
its  power  to  prepare  the  mind  for  their  reception.  The  plain 
fact  is,  that  the  progi-ess  of  civilisation  produces  invariably 
a  certain  tone  and  habit  of  thought,  which  makes  men  recoil 
from  miraculous  narratives  with  an  instinctive  and  imme- 
diate repugnance,  as  though  they  were  essentially  incredible, 
independently  of  any  definite  arguments,  and  in  spite  of 
dogmatic  teaching.  Whether  this  habit  of  mind  is  good  or 
evil,  I  do  not  now  discuss.  That  it  exists  wherever  civilisa- 
tion advances,  is,  I  conceive,  incontestable. 

We  may  observe,  however,  that  it  acts  with  much  greater 
force  against  contemporary  than  against  historical  miracles. 


THE    IVHKACLES    OF    THE    CIIUKCII.  163 

Roman  Catholics  who  will  reject  with  immediate  ridicule  an 
account  of  a  miracle  taking  place  in  their  own  day,  will 
speak  with  considerable  respect  of  a  j^recisely  similar  miracle 
that  is  attributed  to  a  mediteval  saint.  Xor  is  it  at  all  diffi- 
cult to  discover  the  reason  of  this  distinction.  Events  that 
took  place  in  a  distant  past,  are  not  realised  Avith  the  snrae 
intense  vividness  as  those  which  take  place  among  ourselves. 
They  do  not  press  upon  iis  with  the  same  keen  reality,  and 
are  not  judged  by  the  same  measure.  They  come  down  to 
us  invested  with  a  legendary  garb,  obscured  by  the  haze  of 
years,  and  surrounded  by  circumstances  that  are  so  unlike 
our  own  that  they  refract  the  imagination,  and  cloud  and 
distort  its  pictures.  Besides  tliis,  many  of  these  narratives 
are  entwined  with  the  earliest  associations  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  child  ;  the  belief  in  them  is  infused  into  his  yet  un- 
developed mind,  and  they  are  thus  at  no  period  brought  in 
contact  with  a  matured  and  unbiassed  judgment.  We  find, 
therefore,  that  although  these  general  habits  of  thought  do, 
undoubtedly,  exercise  a  retrospective  influence,  that  is  not 
their  first  or  their  most  powerful  effect. 

In  Protestant  countries  there  has  not  been  as  complete  a 
change  as  that  Avhich  we  have  been  considering,  for  Protes- 
tantism was  only  called  into  existence  when  the  old  habits  of 
thought  had  greatly  declined.  The  Reformation  was  created 
and  pervaded  by  the  modern  spirit ;  and  its  leaders  were 
compelled,  by  the  exigencies  of  their  position,  to  repudiate 
the  miraculous  accounts  of  their  time.  They  could  not  with 
any  consistency  admit  that  the  Almighty  had  selected  as  the 
peculiar  channels  of  His  grace,  and  had  glorified  by  count- 
less miracles,  devotions  which  they  stigmatised  as  blasphe- 
mous, idolatrous,  and  superstitious.  We  find,  accordingly, 
tliat  from  the  very  beginning,  Protestantism  looked  upon 


164  EATIONALISM   m   EUROPE. 

modern  miracles  (exce2:)t  those  which  were  comj^rised  under 
the  head  of  witchcraft)  with  an  aversion  and  distrust  that 
contrasts  remarkably  with  the  unhesitating  credulity  of  its 
op23onents.  The  history  of  its  sects  exhibits,  indeed,  some 
alleged  miracles,  which  were,  apparently,  the  result  of  ig- 
norance or  enthusiasm,  and  a  very  few  which  were  obvious 
impositions.  Such,  for  example,  was  the  famous  voice  from 
the  wall  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary,  which  proclaimed  the 
mass  to  be  idolatrous  ;  just  as  the  crucifix  in  Christ's  Church, 
at  Dublin,  shed  tears  of  blood  in  the  following  reign,  be- 
cause the  Protestant  service  was  introduced  into  Ireland. 
On  the  whole,  however,  the  new  faith  proved  remarkably 
free  from  these  fomis  of  deception ;  and  its  leaders  generally 
concurred  in  the  belief,  that  miracles  had  ceased  when  Chris- 
tianity had  gained  a  definite  ascendancy  in  the  world.  The 
Patristic  writings  are  full  of  miraculous  accounts  ;  and  most 
of  the  reformers,  and  especially  those  in  England,  treated 
Patristic  authority  with  great  respect ;  so  that  the  line  of  de- 
marcation between  the  miraculous  and  the  non-miraculous 
age,  was  generally  drawn  at  about  the  period  when  the  most 
eminent  of  the  Fathers  had  passed  away.  As  this  was  not 
very  long  after  Christianity  had  obtained  a  complete  com- 
mand of  the  civil  power,  many  plausible  arguments  could 
be  urged  in  supj)ort  of  the  view,  Avhich  appears,  in  England 
at  least,  to  have  been  universal. 

When  Locke  was  writing  his  famous  '  Letters  on  Tolera- 
tion,' he  was  led  to  a  consideration  of  the  Patristic  miracles 
by  an  argument  which  seems  then  to  have  been  deemed  very 
forcible,  but  which,  as  it  belongs  to  a  different  '  climate  of 
opinion '  from  our  own,  would  now  be  regarded  as  both  fu- 
tile and  irreverent.  It  was  absolutely  necessary,  it  was  con- 
tended, under  ordinary  circumstances,  for  the  well-being  of 


THE    MIRACLES    OF   THE    CHUECH.  166 

Christianity,  that  it  should  be  supported  by  persecution  ; 
that  is  to  say,  that  the  civil  power  should  su^ppress  its  oppo- 
nents. When  Christianity  was  still  unrecognised  by  gov- 
ernment, it  existed  in  an  abnormal  condition ;  the  laws  of 
nature  were  suspended  in  its  favour,  and  continual  miracles 
ensured  its  triumph.  When,  however,  the  conversion  of 
Constantino  placed  the  civil  power  at  its  disposal,  the  era  of 
the  supernatural  was  closed.  /  The  power  of  persecuting  was 
obtained  ;  and,  therefore,  the  power  of  w^orking  miracles  was 
withdrawn.  The  alliance  between  Church  and  State  being 
instituted,  Christianity  had  arrived  at  its  normal  and  final 
position,  and  exceptional  assistance  had  become  unnecessary.^ 
This  argument,  the  work  of  the  theologians  of  Oxford,  was 
not  likely  to  stagger  Locke ;  but  the  historical  question 
which  it  opened  was  well  calculated  to  arrest  that  keen  and 
fearless  intellect,  so  little  accustomed  to  bow  before  unsup- 
ported authority,  and  at  that  very  time  engaged  in  the  de- 
fence of  toleration  against  the  entire  weight  of  ecclesiastical 
tradition.  He  appears  to  have  consulted  Sir  Isaac  Xewton  ; 
for,  in  one  of  ISTewton's  letters,  we  find  a  somewhat  hesitat- 
ing passage  upon  the  subject.  '  Miracles,'  IS'ewton  wrote, 
'  of  good  credit  continued  in  the  Church  for  about  two  or 
three  hundred  years.  Gregorius  Thaumaturgus  had  his 
name  from  thence,  and  was  one  of  the  latest  who  was  emi- 
nent for  that  gift ;  but  of  their  number  and  frequency  I  am 
not  able  to  give  you  a  just  account.     The  history  of  those 


*  This  argument,  in  a  modified  form,  lias  been  reproduced  by  Muzarelli  (a 
Roman  theologian  of  some  note)  in  bis  Treatise  on  the  Inquisition.  He  cites 
the  destruction  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira,  and  of  Simon  Magus.  This  class  of 
miracles,  he  says,  has  ceased  ;  and  the  Inquisition  is,  in  consequence,  required. 
I  know  this  very  remarkable  treatise  by  a  translation  in  the  fifth  voUuuo  of 
Henrion,  Histoire  de  VEglise. 


1G6  KATIOXALISM   IX    EUROPE. 

ages  is  very  im2:)erfect.' '  Locke  does  not  appear  to  have 
adopted  this  view.  In  reply  to  the  Oxford  argument,  he 
wrote  a  very  remarkable  passage,  which  did  not,  apparently, 
attract  at  the  time  the  attention  it  deserved ;  but  which, 
long  afterwards,  obtained  an  extremely  conspicuous  place  in 
the  discussion.  '  This,  I  think,'  he  said,  '  is  evident,  that  he 
who  Avill  build  his  faith  or  reasonings  upon  miracles  deliv- 
ered by  Church  historians,  will  find  cause  to  go  no  further 
tlian  the  Apostles'  time,  or  else  not  to  stop  at  Constantine's, 
since  the  writers  after  that  period,  whose  word  we  readily 
take  as  unquestionable  in  other  things,  speak  of  miracles  in 
their  time,  with  no  less  assurance  than  the  Fathers  before 
the  fourth  century ;  and  a  great  part  of  the  miracles  of  the 
second  and  third  centuries  stand  upon  the  credit  of  the  wri- 
ters of  the  fourth.'  ^ 

After  this  time,  the  subject  of  the  miracles  of  the  Fathers 
seems  to  have  slept  until  public  attention  was  called  to  it  by 
the  well-known  work  of  Middleton.  That  the  '  Free  Inquiry' 
was  a  book  of  extraordinary  merit,  that  it  disj^layed  great 
eloquence,  great  boldness,  and  great  controversial  dexterity, 
and  met  with  no  opposition  at  all  equal  to  its  abilities,  will 
scarcely  be  denied.  But,  in  order  to  appreciate  its  success, 
we  should  consider,  besides  these  things,  the  general  charac- 
ter of  the  age  in  which  it  appeared.  During  the  half  century 
that  elapsed  between  Locke  and  Middleton,  many  influences 
that  it  would  be  tedious  to  examine,  but  to  which  Locke 
liimself  by  his  j)hilosophymost  largely  contributed,  had  pro- 
foundly modified  the  theology  of  England.     The  charm  and 

*  Brewster's  Life  of  Xcidon^  p.  275.  There  is  another  letter  from  Xewton 
to  Locke  ou  the  subject,  in  King's  Life  of  Loche,  vol.  i.  p.  415 ;  but  it  is  little 
more  than  a  catalogue  of  authorities. 

■■^  Third  Letter  on  Toleration,  p.  269. 


THE    MIRACLES    OF    THE    CHUECH.  167 

fascination  which  the  early  Fathers  exercisea  upon  the 
divines  of  the  previous  century  had  quite  passed  away.  The 
Patristic  works  fell  raj^idly  into  neglect,  and  the  very  few 
who  continued  to  study  them  were  but  little  imbued  with 
their  spirit.  Nothing,  indeed,  could  be  more  unlike  the  tone 
of  the  Fathers,  than  the  cold,  passionless,  and  prudential 
theology  of  the  eighteenth  century;  a  theology  which  re- 
garded Christianity  as  an  admirable  auxiliary  to  the  police 
force,  and  a  j^rinciple  of  decorum  and  of  cohesion  in  society, 
but  which  carefully  banished  from  it  all  enthusiasm,  veiled 
or  attenuated  all  its  mysteries,  and  virtually  reduced  it  to  an 
authoritative  system  of  moral  philosophy.  There  never  had 
been  a  time  when  divines  had  such  a  keen  dread  of  anything 
that  appeared  absurd  or  grotesque.  The  spirit  that,  in  the 
previous  century,  had  destroyed  the  belief  in  witchcraft, 
passed  in  its  full  intensity  into  their  works.  Common  sense 
was  the  dominating  characteristic  of  all  they  wrote.  Gene- 
rous sentiments,  disinterested  virtue,  reverential  faith,  sub- 
lime speculations,  had  passed  away.  Every  preacher  v,as 
employed  in  showing  that  Christianity  was  in  all  respects 
perfectly  in  accordance  with  human  reason,  in  eliminating  or 
obscuring  whatever  could  shock  the  feelings  or  offend  the 
judgment,  in  representing  religion  as  intended  to  refine  and 
harmonise  society,  to  embellish  all  the  relations  of  life,  to 
give  a  higher  sanction  to  the  dictates  of  human  prudence, 
and  to  extend  the  horizon  of  that  prudence  beyond  the  grave. 
As  a  consequence  of  this  state  of  mind,  there  was  an  increas- 
ing indisposition  to  accept  miracles  like  those  of  the  Fathers, 
which  were  not  included  in  the  evidences  of  Christianity, 
and  a  decreasing  reverence  for  the  writers  on  whose  testi- 
mony they  rest. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  movement  of  thought,  that 


1G8  RATIONALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

Middleton  published  liis  great  attack  upon  tlie  Patristic 
miracles,  and  brought  into  clear  relief  both  the  difficulties 
and  the  importance  of  the  subject.  The  writings  of  the 
Fathers  contain  numerous  accounts  of  miracles  which  they 
alleged  to  have  taken  place  in  their  own  day  and  under 
their  own  notice,  and  which  are  of  such  a  nature,  and  are 
related  in  such  a  manner,  that  it  seems  scarcely  possible  to 
avoid  the  conclusion  that  they  had  really  taken  place,  or  else 
that  the  Fathers  deliberately  palmed  them  off  upon  the  cre- 
dulity of  their  readers.  The  works  of  the  first  century  that 
have  come  down  to  us  are  extremely  scanty,  and  consist 
almost  entirely  of  short  epistles  written  without  any  histori- 
cal or  controversial  purpose,  for  the  encouragement  or  edifi- 
cation of  believers  ;  but  even  in  this  century,  the  martyrdom 
of  St.  Polycarp  supplies  an  account  which  is  clearly  miracu- 
lous. Justin  Martyr,  who  wrote  very  early  in  the  second 
century,  and  it  is  said  not  more  than  fifty  years  after  the 
death  of  St.  John,  distinctly  asserts  the  continuance  of 
miracles  in  his  time,  and  from  this  date  the  evidence  is  ample 
and  unbroken.  The  Protestant  theory  is,  that  miracles  be- 
came gradually  fewer  and  fewer,  till  they  at  last  entirely 
disappeared.  The  historical  fact  is,  that,  generation  after 
generation,  the  miraculous  accounts  became  more  numerous, 
more  universal,  and  more  extraordinary.  'As  far  as  the 
church  historians  can  illustrate  or  throw  light  upon  anything, 
there  is  not  a  single  point  in  all  history  so  constantly,  ex- 
plicitly, and  unanimously  confirmed  by  them  all,  as  the  con- 
tinual succession  of  those  powers  through  all  ages,  from  the 
earliest  father  who  first  mentions  them  down  to  the  time  of 
the  Reformation.' '  If,  then,  we  gave  even  a  general  cre- 
dence to  the  historical  evidence  upon  the  subject,  we  should 

'  Preface  to  the  Free  Inqxnry. 


THE   MIRACLES    OF   THE    CIIHRCII.  1G9 

be  carried  down,  without  pause  or  chasm,  into  the  depths 
of  the  middle  ages ;  and  we  should  be  compelled  to  admit, 
that  what  Protestants  regard  as  the  worst  superstitions  of 
the  Church  of  Rome,  w^ere  for  centuries  the  habitual  and 
special  channels  of  supernatural  favour.  If  again,  in  defiance 
of  all  the  ordinary  rules  of  historical  criticism,  we  believed 
the  assertions  of  the  writers  of  the  fourth  century,  but 
refused  to  credit  the  equally  positive  testimony  of  the  writers 
of  the  ninth  century,  we  should  still  be  met  by  the  same 
difficulty,  though  in  a  modified  form.  It  may  be  contended, 
that  the  Fathers  of  the  fourth  century  were  not  Roman  Cath- 
olics ;  but  it  is  quite  certain  that  they  were  not,  in  the  ordi- 
nary sense  of  the  word,  Protestants.  It  is  quite  certain  that 
there  existed  among  them  many  practices,  forms  of  devotion, 
and  doctrinal  tendencies,  which  may  not  have  been  actually 
Roman  Catholic,  but  which,  at  least,  hung  upon  the  extreme 
verge  of  Catholicism,  which  inevitably  gravitated  to  it,  and 
which  were  the  germs  and  the  embryos  of  mediseval  theology. 
Now,  it  is  precisely  in  connection  with  this  department  of 
their  theology  that  the  miraculous  accounts  are  most  nu- 
merous. 

Such  was  the  great  difficulty  of  the  question,  regarded 
from  the  Protestant  point  of  view.  Middleton  met  it  by  an 
attack  upon  the  veracity  of  the  Fathers,  which  was  so 
eloquent,  so  uncompromising,  and  so  admirably  directed, 
that  all  England  soon  rang  with  the  controversy.  He  con* 
tended  that  the  religious  leaders  of  the  fourth  century  had 
admitted,  eulogised,  and  habitually  acted  upon  principles 
that  were  diametrically  opposed,  not  simply-  to  the  aspirations 
of  a  transcendent  sanctity,  but  to  the  dictates  of  the  most 
common  honesty.  He  sliowed  that  they  had  applauded 
falsehood,  that  they  had  practised  the  most  wholesale  for- 


17C  KATI02sALIS:Si:   IN    EUROPE. 

gery,  tliat  they  had  habitually  and  grossly  falsified  history, 
that  they  had  adopted  to  the  fullest  extent  the  system  of 
pious  frauds,  and  that  they  continually  employed  them  to 
stimulate  the  devotion  of  the  peoj)le.  These  yfere  the 
charges  which  he  brought  against  men,  around  whose  brows 
the  saintly  aureole  had  sparkled  for  centuries  with  an  unfading 
splendour  ;  against  those  great  Fathers  who  had  formed  the 
theological  systems  of  Europe  ;  who  had  been  the  arbitrators 
of  so  many  controversies,  and  the  objects  of  the  homage  of 
so  many  creeds.  The  evidence  he  adduced  was  pointed 
directly  at  the  writers  of  the  fourth  century ;  but  he  carried 
his  argument  back  to  a  still  earlier  period.  '  When  we  re- 
flect,' he  says,  '  on  that  surprising  confidence  and  security 
with  which  the  principal  Fathers  of  this  fourth  century  have 
afiirmed  as  true  what  they  themselves  had  either  forged,  or 
what  they  knew  at  least  to  be  forged,  it  is  natural  to  sus2:>ect 
that  so  bold  a  defiance  of  sacred  truth  could  not  be  acquired 
or  become  general  at  once,  but  must  have  been  carried 
gradually  to  that  height  by  custom  and  the  example  of  for- 
mer times,  and  a  long  experience  of  what  the  credulity  and 
superstition  of  the  multitude  would  bear.'  ^ 

It  is  manifest  that  an  attack  of  this  kind  opened  out 
questions  of  the  gravest  and  widest  character.  It  shook  the 
estimate  of  the  Fathers  which  had  been  general,  not  only  in 
the  Church  of  Rome,  but  in  a  great  degree  among  the  ablest 
of  the  Reformers.  In  the  Church  of  England  especially,  the 
Patristic  writings  had  been  virtually  regarded  as  almost 
equal  in  authority  to  those  of  the  inspired  writers.  The  first 
great  theological  work  of  the  English  Reformation  was 
'  The  Apology,'  in  Avliich  Jewel  justified  the  Reformers,  by 
pointing  out  the  deviations  of  the  Church  of  Rome  from  the 

'  Introductory  Chapter. 


THE   MIKACLES    OF   THE   CHUKCH.  171 

Patristic  sentiments.  It  had  ever  been  the  j)ride  of  the 
great  divines  of  the  seventeenth  century  that  they  were  the 
most  profound  students  of  the  Patristic  writings,  the  most 
faithful  representatives  of  their  spirit,  and  the  most  loyal  re- 
specters of  their  authority.  The  unsupported  assertion  of 
a  Father  had  always  been  regarded  as  a  moat  weighty,  if  not 
a  decisive,  argument  in  controversy.  But  surely  this  tone 
was  idle  and  worse  than  idle,  if  the  estimate  of  Middleton 
was  correct.  If  the  Fathers  were  in  truth  men  of  the  most 
unbounded  credulity  and  of  the  laxest  veracity ;  if  the 
sense  of  the  importance  of  dogmas  had,  in  their  minds,  com- 
pletely superseded  the  sense  of  rectitude,  it  was  absurd  to 
invest  them  with  this  extraordinary  veneration.  They  might 
still  be  reverenced  as  men  of  undoubted  sincerity,  and  of  the 
noblest  heroism ;  they  might  still  be  cited  as  witnesses  to 
the  belief  of  their  time,  and  as  rej^resenting  the  tendencies 
of  its  intellect;  but  their  pre-eminent  authority  had  passed 
away.  The  landmarks  of  English  theology  were  removed. 
The  traditions  on  which  it  rested  were  disturbed.  It  had 
entered  into  new  conditions,  and  must  be  defended  by  new 
arguments.  But  beyond  all  this,  there  were  other,  and,  per- 
haps, graver  questions  suggested.  Under  what  circumstan- 
ces was  it  permitted  to  reject  the  unanimous  and  explicit 
testimon}'  of  all  ecclesiastical  historians  ?  What  was  the 
measure  of  their  credulity  and  of  their  veracity  ?  What 
again  was  the  degree  of  the  antecedent  improbability  of 
]niracles,  the  criteria  separating  the  true  from  the  false,  and 
the  amount  of  testimony  required  to  substantiate  them  ? 

These  were  the  great  questions  which  were  evoked  in 
1748,  by  this  Doctor  of  Divinity,  and  they  were  sufficient 
for  many  years  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  ablest  enquir- 
ers in  England.     Among  the  laity,  the  Avork  of  Middleton 


172  EATIONALISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

seems  to  have  met  with  great  acceptance.  Among  the  cler- 
gy its  impetuous,  uncompromising,  and  sceptical  tone  nat- 
urally excited  much  alarm,  and  the  University  of  Oxford 
signalised  itself  in  opposition ;  hut  it  is  a  remarkahle  sign  of 
the  times  that  the  Fathers  found  no  abler  defenders  than 
Church  and  Dodwell.  Gibbon,  who  was  then  a  very  young 
man,  and  already  entangled  in  the  arguments  of  Bossuet, 
lost  his  remaining  faith  in  Protestantism  during  the  discussion. 
He  could  not,  he  said,  bring  himself  at  that  time  to  adopt  tlie 
conclusions  of  Middleton,  and  he  could  not  resist  the  evi- 
dence that  miracles  of  good  credit  had  continued  in  the 
Church  after  the  leading  doctrines  of  Catholicism  had  been 
introduced.  He  accordingly  embraced  those  doctrines,  and 
left  the  University  without  taking  his  degree.  Hume  inves- 
tigated the  subject  fi'om  a  philosophical  point  of  view ;  he 
endeavoured  to  frame  a  general  doctrine,  determining  the 
relation  between  miraculous  narratives  and  historical  testi- 
mony, the  comparative  improbability  of  the  reality  of  mira- 
cles and  of  the  unveracity  of  historians ;  and  the  result  was 
his  '  Essay  on  Miracles.'  ^  Farmer,  reproducing  an  old  notion 
of  Lightfoot,  Webster,  and  Semler,  and  anticipating  in  tliis 
respect  the  current  of  German  rationalism,  attempted  to  ex- 

^  Hume's  Essay  was  avowedly  au  application  (right  or  wrong)  of  Tillotson's 
famous  argument  against  transubstantiation.  It  is  not  so  generally  known 
that  his  method  of  reasoning  had  been  also  anticipated  by  Locke,  who,  in  a 
very  remarkable  passage  in  his  common-place  book,  contends  that  men  should 
not  believe  any  proposition  that  is  contrary  to  reason,  on  the  authority  either 
of  inspiration  or  of  miracle,  for  the  reality  of  the  mspiration  or  of  the  miracle 
can  only  be  established  by  reason.  '  It  is  harder,'  he  says,  '  to  believe  that 
God  should  alter  or  put  out  of  its  ordinary  course  some  phenomenon  of  the 
great  world  for  once,  and  make  things  act  contrary  to  their  ordinary  rule  pur- 
posely, that  the  mind  of  men  might  do  so  always  after,  than  that  this  is  some 
fallacy  or  natural  effect  of  which  he  knows  not  the  cause,  let  it  look  ever  so 
strange'  (King,  Life  of  Locke,  vol.  i.  pp.  230,  231).  See,  too,  the  chapter  on 
Reason  and  Faith,  in  the  Essaj  on  the  Ihunaii  Understanding. 


THE   MIEACLES    OF   THE    CIIUECII.  173 

plain  the  diabolical  possessions  of  Scripture  by  the  ordinary 
phenomena  of  epilepsy/  Warburton  and  Douglas,  witli 
probably  most  of  the  ablest  of  the  clergy,  abandoning  the 
Patristic  miracles,  proceeded  to  establish  the  peculiar  charac- 
ter and  evidence  of  the  miracles  recorded  by  the  Evangelists ; 
and  the  general  adoption  of  this  tone  may  be  said  to  have 
ushered  in  a  new  phase  in  the  history  of  miracles. 

It  has  often  been  remarked  as  a  singular  fact,  that  almost 
every  great  step  which  has  been  made  by  the  English  intel- 
lect in  connection  with  theology,  has  been  made  in  spite  of 
the  earnest  and  persistent  opposition  of  the  University  of 
Oxford.  The  attitude  which  that  university  preserved  dur- 
ing the  Middletonian  controversy,  was  precisely  the  same  as 
that  which  it  had  exhibited  towards  the  two  great  questions 
of  the  previous  century.  The  advocates  of  the  theory  of 
civil  liberty  in  opposition  to  the  theory  of  passive  obedience, 
and  the  advocates  of  toleration  as  opposed  to  persecution,  had 
found  at  Oxford  their  most  unflinching  and  most  able  adver- 
saries. In  our  own  century,  when  the  secularisation  of  pol- 
itics was  forced  upon  the  public  mind  by  the  discussions  on 
the  Test  Act  and  on  Catholic  Emancipation,  and  when  it  had 
become  evident  to  all  attentive  observers  that  this  question 
was  destined  to  be  the  battle-field  of  the  contest  between 
modern  civilisation  and  tradition,  the  University  of  Oxford 
showed  clearly  that  its  old  spirit  had  lost  none  of  its  intensity, 
though  it  had  lost  much  of  its  influence.  Still  later,  in  1 833,  a 
great  reactionary  movement  emanated  from  the  same  quarter, 
and  was  directed  avowedly  against  the  habits  of  religious 

^  Farmer,  who  was  a  dissenting  minister,  desired  to  destroy  the  difficulty 
arising  from  the  fact  that  miracles  were  generally  represented  as  attesting  both 
truth  and  error.  He  attempted  to  show  that  there  were  no  such  things  as 
diabolical  miracles  of  any  kind. 


174  EATIOI^ALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

thought  which  modern  civilisation  had  everywhere  produced. 
Its  supporters  denounced  these  habits  as  essentially  and  fun- 
damentally false.  They  described  the  history  of  English  the- 
ology for  a  century  and  a  half  as  a  history  of  uninterrupted 
decadence.  They  believed,  in  the  emphatic  words  of  their 
great  leader,  that  '  the  nation  Avas  on  its  way  to  give  up  re- 
vealed truth.'  ^  After  a  time,  the  movement  tended  to  Ca- 
tholicism with  a  force  and  rapidity  that  it  was  impossible  to 
mistake.  It  produced  a  defection  which  was  quite  unparal- 
leled in  magnitude  since  that  which  had  taken  place  under 
the  Stuarts ;  and  which,  unlike  the  former  movement,  was 
altogether  uninfluenced  by  sordid  consideiations.  The  point 
which  I  desire  to  notice  in  connection  with  this  defection,  as 
illustrating  the  tendency  I  am  tracing  in  the  present  chapter, 
is  the  extremely  small  place  which  the  subject  of  Roman 
Catholic  miracles  occupied  in  the  controversy. 

If  we  ask  what  are  the  grounds  on  w^hich  the  cessation 
of  miracles  is  commonly  maintained,  they  may,  I  suppose, 
be  summed  up  much  as  follows  : — 

Miracles,  it  is  said,  are  the  divine  credentials  of  an  in- 
spired messenger  announcing  doctrines  which  could  not  oth- 
erwise be  established.  They  prove  that  he  is  neither  an 
impostor  nor  an  enthusiast ;  that  his  teaching  is  neither  the 
Avork  of  a  designing  intellect  nor  of  an  over-heated  imagina- 
tion. From  the  nature  of  the  case,  this  could  not  be  proved 
in  any  other  way.  If  the  Almighty  designed  to  reveal  to 
mankind  a  system  of  religion  distinct  from  that  which  is  re- 
flected in  the  Avorks  of  nature,  and  written  on  tlie  conscien- 
ces of  men.  He  must  do  so  by  the  instrumentality  of  an 
inspired  messenger.  If  a  teacher  claims  to  be  the  special 
organ  of   a    Divine  communication   revealing    supernatural 

'  Newman's  Anglican  Difficulties^  p.  54. 


THE    MIRACLES    OF    THE    CnUKCII.  175 

truths,  he  may  be  justly  expected  to  authenticate  his  mission 
in  the  only  way  in  which  it  can  be  authenticated,  by  the 
performance  of  supernatural  acts.  Miracles  are,  therefore, 
no  more  improbable  than  a  revelation ;  for  a  revelation 
would  be  ineffectual  without  miracles.  But,  while  this  con- 
sideration destroys  the  common  objections  to  the  Gospel 
miracles,  it  separates  them  clearly  from  those  of  the  Church 
of  Rome.  The  former  were  avowedly  exceptional;  they 
were  absolutely  necessary  ;  they  were  designed  to  introduce 
a  new  religion,  and  to  establish  a  supernatural  message. 
The  latter  were  simply  means  of  edification ;  they  were  di- 
rected to  no  object  that  could  not  otherwise  be  attained  ;  and 
they  were  represented  as  taking  place  in  a  dispensation  that 
was  intended  to  be  not  of  sight  but  of  faith.  Besides  this, 
miracles  should  be  regarded  as  the  most  awful  and  impressive 
manifestations  of  Divine  power.  To  make  them  habitual 
and  commonplace  would  be  to  degrade  if  not  to  destroy  their 
character,  Avhich  would  be  still  further  abased  if  we  admit- 
ted those  which  appeared  trivial  and  puerile.  The  miracles 
of  the  New  Testament  were  always  characterised  by  dignity 
and  solemnity  ;  they  always  conveyed  some  spiritual  lesson, 
and  conferred  some  actual  benefit,  besides  attesting  the  char- 
acter of  the  worker.  The  mediaeval  miracles,  on  the  contra- 
ry, were  frequently  trivial,  purposeless,  and  unimpressive ; 
constantly  verging  on  the  grotesque,  and  not  unfrequently 
passing  the  border. 

Such  is,  I  think,  a  fair  epitome  of  the  common  arguments 
in  favour  of  the  cessation  of  miracles;  and  they  are  undoubt- 
edly very  plausible  and  very  cogent ;  but,  after  all,  what  do 
they  prove  ?  Xot  that  miracles  have  ceased  ;  but  that,  sup- 
posing them  to  have  ceased,  there  is  nothing  surprising  or 
alarminir  in  the  fact.  A  man  who  has  convinced  himself  of  the 


176  EATIOXALISM   IN    EUEOPE. 

falseness  of  tlic  ccclesiasticial  miracles,  may  very  fairly  ad- 
duce these  considerations  to  j^rove  that  his  conclusion  does  not 
imj^ugn  the  Biblical  narratives,  or  introduce  confusion  or 
incoherence  into  tlie  system  of  Providence ;  but  this  is  the  full 
extent  to  Avhich  they  can  be  legitimately  carried.  As  an  d 
jyriori  proof,  they  are  far  too  weak  to  withstand  the  smallest 
amount  of  positive  testimony.  Miracles,  it  is  said,  are  intended 
exclusively  to  accredit  an  inspired  messenger.  But,  after 
all,  what  proof  is  there  of  this?  It  is  simply  an  hypothesis, 
plausible  and  consistent  it  may  be,  but  entirely  nnsupported 
by  positive  testimony.  Indeed,  we  may  go  further,  and  say 
that  it  is  distinctly  oj^posed  to  your  own  facts.  You  may  re- 
pudiate the  unanimous  belief  of  the  early  Christians,  that 
miracles  were  ordinary  and  commonj)lace  events  among  all 
nations ;  you  may  resist  the  strong  arguments  that  may  be 
drawn  from  the  unsurprised  reception  of  the  Christian  mira- 
cles, and  from  the  existence  of  the  demoniacs  and  of  the  ex- 
orcists ;  but  at  least  you  must  admit,  that  the  Old  Testament 
relates  many  miracles  which  will  not  fall  under  your  canon. 
The  creation  was  a  miracle,  and  so  was  the  deluge,  and  so 
was  the  destruction  of  the  cities  of  the  plain.  The  Old 
Testament  miracles  are,  in  many  respects,  unlike  those  of  the 
Xew  Testament :  is  it  impossible  that  there  should  be  an- 
other class  different  from  either  ?  But  the  ecclesiastial  mira- 
cles, it  is  said,  are  often  grotesque  ;  they  appear  primd  facie 
absurd,  and  excite  an  irresistible  repugnance.  A  sufficiently 
dang^erous  test  in  an  asre  in  which  men  find  it  more  and  more 
difficult  to  believe  any  miracles  whatever.  A  sufficiently  dan- 
gerous test  for  those  who  know  the  tone  that  has  been  long 
adopted,  over  an  immense  part  of  Europe,  towards  such  nar- 
ratives as  the  deluge,  or  tlie  exploits  of  Samson,  the  speak- 
ing ass,  or  the  possessed  pigs !     Besides   this,  a  great  pro- 


THE   MIEACLES    OF   THE    CHUECII.  177 

portion  of  the  ecclesiastical  miracles  are  simply  repro- 
ductions of  those  which  are  recorded  in  the  Bible;  and 
if  there  are  mingled  with  them  some  that  appear  mani- 
fest impostures,  this  maj  be  a  very  good  reason  for  treating 
these  narratives  with  a  more  jealous  scrutiny,  but  is  cer- 
tainly no  reason  for  maintaining  that  they  are  all  below  con- 
tempt. The  Bible  neither  asserts  nor  implies  the  revocation 
of  supernatural  gifts  ;  and  if  the  general  promise  that  these 
gifts  should  be  conferred  may  have  been  intended  to  apply 
only  to  the  Apostles,  it  is  at  least  as  susceptible  of  a  different 
interpretation.  If  these  miracles  were  actually  continued,  it 
is  surely  not  difficult  to  discover  the  beneficial  purpose  that 
they  would  fulfil.  They  would  stimulate  a  languid  piety ; 
they  would  prove  invaluable  auxiliaries  to  missionaries  la- 
bouring among  barbarous  and  unreasoning  savages,  who, 
from  their  circumstances  and  habits  of  mind,  are  utterly  inca- 
pable of  forming  any  just  estimate  of  the  evidences  of  the 
religion  they  are  expected  to  embrace.  Even  in  Europe,  the 
results  of  the  controversies  of  the  last  300  years  have  not 
been  so  entirely  satisfactory  as  to  leave  no  room  for  some 
more  decisive  proofs  than  the  ambiguous  utterances  of  a  re- 
•  mote  antiquity.  To  say  that  these  miracles  are  false  because 
they  are  Koman  Catholic,  is  to  assume  the  very  question  at 
issue.  The  controversy  between  Protestantism  and  Catholi- 
cism comprises  an  immense  mass  of  complicated  and  hetero- 
geneous arguments.  Thousands  of  minds  have  traversed 
these  arguments,  and  have  found  at  each  step  their  faith  in 
Protestantism  confirmed.  Thousands  of  minds  have  pursued 
the  same  course  with  results  that  were  diametrically  oppo- 
site. The  question  is,  wdiether  an  examination  of  the  alleged 
miracles  of  Catholicism  would  not  furnish  a  decisive  crite- 
rion, or  at  least  one  of  the  most  powerful   arguments,  for 

VOL.  I. — 12 


178  llATIOXALISM   I:T    EUROPE. 

determiniRg  the  controversy.  What  evidence  of  the  truth 
of  Catholicism  could  be  stronger  than  that  its  distinctive 
doctrines  had  been  crowned  by  tens  of  thousands  of  mira- 
cles, that  a  supernatural  halo  had  encircled  it  wherever  it  ap- 
peared, and  had  cast  a  glory  upon  all  its  triumphs  ?  ^  What 
proof  of  the  falsehood  of  Catholicism  could  be  more  decisive 
than  that  it  was  unable  to  establish  any  of  the  immense 
mass  of  miracles  which  it  had  asserted ;  that  all  these  were 
resolved  and  dissipated  before  a  searching  criticism;  that 
saints  had  been  canonised,  forms  of  worship  established, 
countless  bulls  and  pastorals  issued,  innumerable  rejoicings, 
pageantries,  processions,  and  pilgrimages  authoritatively  in- 
stituted, public  opinion  all  through  Christendom  violently  and 
continuously  agitated,  on  account  of  alleged  events  which  had 
either  no  existence,  or  which  were  altogether  misunderstood  ? 
Making  every  allowance  for  the  errors  of  the  most  extreme 
fallibility,  the  history  of  Catholicism  Avould  on  this  hypo- 
thesis represent  an  amount  of  imposture  probably  unequalled 
in  the  annals  of  the  human  race.     If,  again,  you  say  that 


^  E.  g.,  one  of  the  questions  of  dispute  is  the  veneration  of  relics.  Xow 
St.  Augustine,  the  ablest  and  most  clear-headed  of  all  the  Fathers,  and  a  man 
of  undoubted  piety,  solemnly  asserts  that  in  his  own  diocese  of  Hippo,  in  the 
space  of  two  years,  no  less  than  seventy  miracles  had  been  wrought  by  the 
body  of  St.  Stephen,  and  that  in  the  neighbouring  province  of  Calama,  where 
the  relic  had  previously  been,  the  number  was  incomparably  greater.  He  gives 
a  catalogue  of  what  he  deems  undoubted  miracles,  which  he  says  he  had 
selected  from  a  multitude  so  great,  that  volumes  would  be  required  to  relate 
them  all.  In  that  catalogue  loe  find  no  less  than  five  cases  of  restoration  of 
life  to  the  dead.  {De  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  xxii.  c.  8.)  This  statement  is  well  known  to 
readers  of  Gibbon  and  Middleton;  but,  as  far  as  I  know,  the  only  High 
Churchman  who  has  referred  to  it  is  Mr.  Ward  {Ideal  of  a  Christian  Churchy 
pp.  138-140),  who  notices  it  merely  to  lament  the  very  different  tone  with 
which  we  now  speak  of  the  miraculous.  This  aspect  of  the  Patristic  writings 
has  been  very  clearly  and  honestly  brought  out  in  Isaac  Taylor's  Ancient 
Christianity.. 


THE    MIRACLES    OF    THE    CIIUECn.  179 

you  have  formed  a  definite  and  unhesitating  opinion  on  the 
subject  from  other  arguments,  I  reply  that,  putting  aside  all 
other  considerations  this  answer  might  suggest,  it  does  not 
apply  to  the  Tractarian  movement  we  are  considering.  The 
transition  from  the  Church  of  England  to  the  Church  of 
Rome,  Avhich  was  made  by  so  many  in  consequence  of  that 
movement,  was  not  abrupt  or  unwavering.  It  was,  on  the 
contrary,  slow,  painful,  hesitating,  and  dubious.  Some  of 
those  who  made  it  have  described  themselves  as  trembling 
for  montlis,  and  even  years,  between  the  opposing  creeds, 
their  minds  vibrating  and  oscillating  to  and  fro ;  countless 
difficulties,  colliding  principles,  modes  of  reasoning  the  most 
various,  blending  and  neutralising  sentiments  of  CA^ery  hue, 
torturing  their  minds  with  doubt,  and  sometimes  almost 
destroying  by  their  conflict  the  very  faculty  of  judgment. 
Surely  one  might  have  imagined  that  men  in  such  a  position 
would  have  gladly  exchanged  those  shifting  speculations 
that  so  constantly  elude  the  grasp  and  bewilder  the  mind, 
and  catch  their  colour  from  each  changing  mode  of  thought, 
for  the  comparatively  firm  and  definite  ground  of  historical 
criticism  !  The  men  were  admirably  fitted  for  such  criticism. 
They  were  pre-eminently  scholars  and  antiquarians,  and  in 
its  intellectual  aspect  the  movement  Avas  essentially  a  resus- 
citation of  the  past.  Nor  did  the  age  seem  at  first  sight  less 
suited  for  the  enterprise.  In  the  time  of  the  Reformers  the 
study  of  evidences,  and  indeed  all  searching  investigation 
into  the  facts  of  the  past,  were  unknown.  When,  however, 
Tractarianism  arose,  the  laws  of  historical  criticism  were  de- 
veloped to  great  perfection,  and  they  were  attracting  an 
immense  proportion  of  the  talent  of  Europe.  In  Englisli 
theology,  especially,  they  had  become  supreme.  The  attacks 
which  Woolston  and  his  followers  had  made  upon  the  scrip- 


180  RATIONALISM   IX    EUEOPE. 

tural  miracles  had  been  repelled  by  Lardner  and  Paley  with 
such  unexi^ected  vigour,  with  such  undoubted  ability,  and, 
as  it  was  long  thought,  with  such  unanswerable  success,  that 
all  theoloo-ical  reasonincr  had  been  directed  to  this  channel. 
Yet  in  the  Tractarian  movement  the  subject  of  modern  mir- 
acles can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  exercised  a  perceptible 
influence.  Gibbon,  as  we  have  seen,  had  gone  over  to  Eome 
chiefly  through  a  persuasion  of  their  reality.  Chillingwoi'th 
still  earlier  had  declared  that  the  same  reason  had  been  one 
of  those  which  had  induced  him  to  take  the  same  step.  Pas- 
cal had  based  his  defence  of  Jansenism  in  a  great  measure 
upon  the  miracle  of  the  Holy  Thorn.  But  at  Oxford 
these  narratives  hardly  excited  a  serious  attention.  What 
little  influence  they  had  was  chiefly  an  influence  of  repul 
sion ;  what  little  was  written  in  their  favor  was  written 
for  the  most  part  in  the  tone  of  an  apology,  as  if  to  atten- 
uate a  difficulty  rather  than  to  establish  a  creed.  ^ 

This  was  surely  a  very  remarkable  characteristic  of  the 
Tractarian  movement,  when  we  remember  the  circumstances 
and  attainments  of  its  leaders,  and  the  great  j^rominence 
which  miraculous  evidence  had  long  occupied  in  England. 
It  was  especially  remarkable  Avhen  we  recollect  that  one  of 
the  great  complaints  which  the  Tractarian  party  were  making 
against  modern  theology  was,  that  the  conception  of  the 
supernatural  had  become  faint  and  dim,  and  that  its  mani- 
festations were  either  explained  away  or  confined  to  a  distant 
past.  It  would  seem  as  if  those  who  were  most  conscious 
of  the  character  of  their  age  were  unable,  in  the  very  mi  cist 
of  their  opposition,  to  free  themselves  from  its  tendencies. 

*  Dr.  Newman's  very  able  essay  (prefixed  to  Flcury's  History)  is  essentially 
an  apolorjy  for  the  ecclesiastical  miracles ;  and  the  miracles  of  the  English 
saints,  about  which  we  have  lately  heard  so  much,  never  seem  to  have  been 
rccrarded  as  evidential. 


THE   MIRACLES    OF   THE    CHUKCH.  181 

If  Ave  look  beyond  the  Tractarian  movement,  we  find  a 
still  more  startling  illustration  of  the  prevailing  feeling  in 
the  extraordinary  strides  which  professed  and  systematised 
Rationalism  has  made  in  most  Protestant  countries.  The 
extent  to  which  Continental  Protestantism  has  gravitated 
towards  it  has  been  recognised  on  all  sides,  and  has  excited 
the  greatest  hopes  in  some  and  the  greatest  alarm  in  others. 
It  is  worthy  too  of  remark,  that  the  movement  has  been 
most  manifest  in  those  countries  where  the  leading  Churches 
are  not  connected  with  very  elaborate  creeds  or  with  litur- 
gical services,  and  where  the  reason,  being  least  shackled  by 
tradition,  is  most  free  to  follow  the  natural  sequence  of  its 
developments.  It  is  true  that  the  word  Rationalism  is  some- 
what vague,  and  comprises  many  difierent  modifications  of 
belie£  This  consideration  has  constantly  been  urged  by 
those  who  are  termed  orthodox  Protestants  in  a  tone  of  the 
most  contemptuous  scorn,  but  with  a  complete  forgetfulness 
of  the  fact  that  for  300  years  Protestantism  itself  was  invari- 
ably assailed  by  the  very  same  objection,  and  was  invariably 
defended  on  the  twofold  ground  that  variations  of  belief 
form  the  necessary  consequence  of  honest  enquiry,  and  that 
amid  its  innumerable  diversities  of  detail  there  were  certain 
radical  conceptions  which  gave  a  substantial  unity  to  the 
discordant  sects.  Much  the  same  general  unity  may  be  found 
amono;  the  various  modifications  of  Protestant  Rationalism. 
Its  central  conception  is  the  elevation  of  conscience  into  a 
position  of  supreme  authority  as  the  religious  organ,  a  veri- 
fying faculty  discriminating  between  truth  and  error.  It 
regards  Christianity  as  designed  to  preside  over  the  moral 
development  of  mankind,  as  a  conception  which  was  to  bo- 
come  more  and  more  sublimated  and  spiritualised  as  the 
human  mind  passed  into  new  phases,  and  Avas  able  to  bear 


182  EATIOXALISM   IN"    EUROPE. 

the  splendour  of  a  more  unclouded  light.  Religion  it  be- 
lieves to  be  no  exception  to  the  general  law  of  j)rogress,  but 
rather  the  highest  form  of  its  manifestation,  and  its  earlier 
systems  but  the  necessary  steps  of  an  imperfect  develoj^ment. 
In  its  eyes  the  moral  element  of  Christianity  is  as  the  sun 
in  lieaA'en,  and  dogmatic  systems  are  as  the  clouds  that  in- 
tercept and  temper  the  exceeding  brightness  of  its  ray. 
The  insect  whose  existence  is  but  for  a  moment  might  well 
imagine  that  these  were  indeed  eternal,  that  their  majestic 
columns  could  never  fail,  and  that  their  luminous  folds  were 
the  very  source  and  centre  of  light.  And  yet  they  shift  and 
vary  with  each  changing  breeze ;  they  blend  and  separate  ; 
they  assume  new  forms  and  exhibit  new  dimensions ;  as  the 
sun  that  is  above  them  waxes  more  glorious  in  its  power, 
they  are  j^ermeated  and  at  last  absorbed  by  its  increasing 
splendour;  they  recede,  and  wither,  and  disappear,  and  the 
eye  ranges  far  beyond  the  sphere  they  had  occupied  into  the 
infinity  of  glory  that  is  above  them. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  enter  into  a  critical  examination 
of  the  faults  and  merits  of  Rationalism.  A  system  which 
would  unite  in  one  sublime  synthesis  all  the  past  forms  of 
human  belief,  which  accepts  with  triumphant  alacrity  each 
ncAv  development  of  science,  having  no  stereotyped  standard 
to  defend,  and  Avhich  represents  the  human  mind  as  pursuing 
on  the  highest  subjects  a  path  of  continual  progress  towards 
the  fullest  and  rnost  transcendent  knowledge  of  the  Deity, 
can  never  fail  to  exercise  a  powerful  intellectual  attraction. 
A  system  which  makes  the  moral  faculty  of  man  the  measure 
and  arbiter  of  faith,  must  always  act  powerfully  on  those  in 
whom  that  faculty  is  most  developed.  This  idea  of  contin- 
ued and  uninterrupted  development  is  one  that  seems  abso- 
lutely to  override  our  age.     It  is  scarcely  j^ossible  to  open 


THE    MIKxVCLES    OF    THE    CIIUECH.  183 

any  really  able  book  on  any  subject  without  encountering  it 
in  some  form.  It  is  stirring  all  science  to  its  very  depths  ; 
it  is  revolutionising  all  historical  literature.  Its  i^rominence 
in  theology  is  so  great  that  there  is  scarcely  any  school  that 
is  altogether  exempt  from  its  influence.  We  have  seen  in  our 
own  day  the  Church  of  Home  itself  defended  in  'An  Essay 
on  Development,'  and  by  a  strange  application  of  the  laws  of 
progress. 

These  elements  of  attraction  do  much  to  explain  the  ex- 
traordinary rapidity  Avith  which  Eationalism  has  advanced 
in  the  present  century,  in  spite  of  the  vagueness  and  obscurity 
it  often  exhibits  and  the  many  parodoxes  it  has  engendered. 
But  it  is  well  worthy  of  notice  that  the  very  first  direction 
which  these  speculations  invariably  take — tlie  very  sign  and 
characteristic  of  their  action — is  an  attemj^t  to  explain  away 
the  miracles  of  Scripture.  This  is  so  emphatically  the  dis- 
tinctive mark  of  Rationalism,  that  with  most  persons  it  is  the 
only  conception  the  word  conveys.  Wherever  it  appears  it 
represents  and  interprets  the  prevailing  disinclination  to 
accept  miraculous  narratives,'  and  will  resort  to  every  artifice 
of  interpretation  in  order  to  evade  their  force.  Its  preva- 
lence, therefore,  clearly  indicates  the  extent  to  which  this 
aversion  to  the  miraculous  exists  in  Protestant  countries,  and 
the  rapidity  with  which  it  has  of  late  years  increased. 

Every  one  who  has  paid  any  attention  to  these  subjects 
has  a  natural  inclination  to  attribute  the  conclusions  he  has 
arrived  at  to  the  cflbrls  of  his  own  reason,  acting  under  the 

^  A  large  section  of  German  theologians,  as  is  well  known,  even  regard  the 
irtpossibility,  or  at  all  events  the  unreality,  of  miraculous  accounts  as  axiom- 
at'.c.  Thus  Strauss  calmly  remarks  :  '  We  may  summarily  reject  all  miracles, 
prophecies,  narratives  of  angels  and  demons,  and  the  like,  as  simply  impossible 
and  irreconcilable  with  the  known  and  universal  laws  which  govern  the  course 
of  events.' — Introduction  to  the  Life  of  Jcsm. 


184  EATIOXALISM   IN   EUKOPE. 

inflaence  of  an  unbiassed  Avill,  rather  than  to  a  general  pre- 
disposition arising  out  of  the  character  of  his  age.  It  is 
probable,  therefore,  that  the  members  of  the  rationalistic 
school  would  very  generally  deny  being  influenced  by  any 
other  considerations  than  those  which  they  allege  in  their  de- 
fence, and  would  point  to  that  system  of  minute  and  critical 
Biblical  investigation  which  Germany  has  produced  as  the 
true  source  of  their  opinions.  I  cannot  but  think  that  it  is 
much  less  the  cause  than  the  result,  and  that  we  have  a  clear 
indication  of  this  in  the  fact  that  a  precisely  similar  tendency 
of  opinions  is  shown  in  another  quarter  where  this  criticism 
has  never  been  pursued.  I  allude  to  the  freethinkers,  who 
are  scattered  in  such  profusion  through  Roman  Catholic 
countries.  Anyone  who  has  attentively  examined  that  great 
school,  which  exercises  so  vast  an  influence  over  the  literature 
and  policy  of  our  age,  must  have  perceived  that  it  is  in  many 
respects  widely  removed  from  the  old  Voltairian  spirit.  It  is 
no  loDger  exclusively  negative  and  destructive,  but  is,  on  the 
contrary,  intensely  positive,  and  in  its  moral  aspect  intensely 
Christian.  It  clusters  around  a  series  of  essentially  Christian 
conceptions — equality,  fraternity,  the  suppression  of  war,  the 
elevation  of  the  poor,  the  love  of  truth,  and  the  difiusion  of 
liberty.  It  revolves  around  the  ideal  of  Christianity,  and 
represents  its  spirit  without  its  dogmatic  system  and  its 
supernatural  narratives.  From  both  of  these  it  unhesitatingly 
recoils,  while  deriving  all  its  strength  and  nourishment  from 
Christian  etchics. 

Such  are,  I  conceive,  the  general  outlines  of  this  move- 
ment, which  bears  an  obvious  relationship  to  Protestant  Ra- 
tionalism, and  which  has  been  advancing  through  Europe 
^ith  still  more  rapid  and  triumphant  strides.  He  must  in- 
deed be  wilfully  blind  to  the  course  of  history  who  does  not 


THE   MmACLES    OF   THE    CnUECII.  185 

perceive  that  during  the  last  hnndred  years  these  schools 
have  completely  superseded  the  dogmatic  forms  of  Protes- 
tantism as  the  efficient  antagonists  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
as  the  centres  towards  which  those  who  are  repelled  from 
Catholicism  are  naturally  attracted.  In  the  sixteenth  and  to 
a  certain  degree  in  the  seTenteenth  century,  Protestantism 
exercised  a  commanding  and  controlling  influence  over  the 
affairs  of  Europe.  Almost  all  the  great  questions  that  agi- 
tated the  minds  of  men  were  more  or  less  connected  with  its 
progress.  It  exhibited,  indeed,  many  unseemly  dissensions 
and  many  grotesque  extravagances ;  hut  each  of  its  sects 
had  a  rigid  and  definite  dogmatic  system,  and  exercised  a 
powerful  influence  on  those  who  were  around  it.  Whoever 
was  dissatisfied  with  the  teaching  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
was  almost  immediately  attracted  and  absorbed  by  one  of 
these  systems,  and  threw  himself  into  the  new  dogmatism 
with  as  much  zeal  as  he  had  exhibited  in  the  old  one.  Dur- 
ing the  last  century  all  this  has  changed.  Of  the  many  hun- 
dreds of  great  thinkers  and  writers,  in  every  department, 
who  have  separated  from  the  teachings  and  practices  of  Ca- 
tholicism, it  would  be  difficult  to  name  three  men  of  real 
eminence  and  unquestionable  sincerity  who  have  attached 
themselves  permanently  to  any  of  the  more  conservative 
forms  of  Protestantism.  Amid  all  those  great  semi-religious 
revolutions  which  have  unhinged  the  faith  of  thousands, 
and  have  so  profoundly  altered  the  relations  of  Catholicism 
and  society,  Protestant  Churches  have  made  no  advance  and 
have  exercised  no  perceptible  influence.  It  has  long  been  a 
mere  truism  to  say  that  we  are  passing  through  a  state  of 
chaos,  of  anarchy,  and  of  transition.  During  the  past  cen- 
tury the  elements  of  dissolution  have  been  multiplying  all 
around  us.     Scarcely  ever  before  has  so  large  a  proportion 


ISO  EATIOXALISM   IN    EUEOPE. 

of  the  literature  of  Europe  exhibited  an  oj^en  hostility  or  a 
contemptuous  indifference  to^yards  Catholicism.  Entire  na- 
tions have  defied  its  censures  and  confiscated  its  property, 
and  wrested  every  department  of  politics  from  its  control. 
But  v/hile  Catholicism  has  been  thus  convulsed  and  agitated 
to  its  very  basis ;  while  the  signs  of  its  disintegration  are 
crowding  uj^on  us  on  every  side ;  while  the  languor  and  fee- 
bleness it  exhibits  furnish  a  ready  theme  for  every  moralist 
and  a  problem  for  every  jDhilosopher,  the  Protestant  sects 
have  gained  nothing  by  the  decay  of  their  ancient  rival. 
They  have  still  retained  their  ecclesiastical  organisations  and 
their  ancient  formularies,  but  the  magnetism  they  once  pos- 
sessed has  wholly  vanished.  Of  all  the  innumerable  forms 
into  which  the  spirit  of  dogmatism  crystallised  after  the 
Reformation,  not  one  seems  to  have  retained  the  power  of 
attracting  those  beyond  its  border.  Whatever  is  lost  by  Ca- 
tholicism is  gained  by  Eationalism  ;  ^  wherever  the  spirit  of 
Rationalism  recedes,  the  spirit  of  Catholicism  advances.  To- 
wards the  close  of  the  last  century  France  threw  off  her  al- 
legiance to  Christianity,  endeavoured  to  eflace  all  the  tra- 
ditions of  her  23ast,  and  proclaimed  a  new  era  in  the  religious 
history  of  mankind.  She  soon  repented  of  her  temerity,  and 
retired  from  a  position  Avhich  she  had  found  untenable.  Half 
the  nation  became  ultramontane  Roman  Catholics;  the  other 
half  became  indifferent  or  Rationalist.^  The  great  majority 
of  Continental  writers  have  repudiated  the  doctrines  of  Ca- 

^  Italy  since  the  late  political  changes,  and  as  a  consequence  of  the  direc- 
tion given  to  the  national  sympathies  by  those  changes,  furnishes,  perhaps,  a 
slight  exception ;  but  even  there  the  conquests  of  Protestantism  are  insignifi- 
cant as  compared  with  those  of  Frcethinking,  and  it  is  said  that  among  Prot- 
estants the  Plymouth  Brethren,  who  are  among  the  least  dogmatic,  have  also 
been  among  the  most  successful. 

^  I  need  hardly  remind  the  reader  how  forcibly  and  eloquently  this  poini 
nas  been  brought  out  by  Macaulay,  in  his  Essay  on  Hanl-es  History. 


THE    MIEACLES    OF   THE   CHURCH.  187 

tholicism,  and  pursue  their  speculations  without  paying  the 
smallest  deference  to  its  authority.  In  the  sixteenth  century 
all  such  persons  would  have  attached  themselves  to  some 
definite  form  of  Protestantism ;  they  now  assume  a  position 
which  was  then  entirely  iine:sampled,  and  would  have  ap- 
peared entirely  inexplicable.  The  age  of  heresiarchs  has 
passed.^  Among  very  ignorant  people  new  dogmatic  sys- 
tems, as  Mormonism  has  shown,  may  still  be  successful ;  but 
among  the  educated  classes  they  seem  to  have  lost  all  their 
attraction  and  power.  The  immense  missionary  organisa- 
tions of  England  succeed  indeed  in  occasionally  attracting  a 
few  isolated  individuals  in  Koman  Catholic  countries  to 
Protestantism  ;  but  we  look  in  vain  for  the  natural  flow  and 
current  of  thought  which  in  former  times  imj)elled  vast  por- 
tions of  society  to  its  communion,  and  imparted  an  influence 
to  all  the  great  questions  in  Europe.  The  only  movements 
which  in  the  faintest  degree  reproduce  the  fascination  of  the 
sects  of  the  sixteenth  century  are  philanthropic  and  demo- 
cratic efforts,  like  those  of  St.  Simon  or  Mazzini.  All  the 
great  intellectual  problems  that  convulse  Europe  are  con- 
nected with  the  rights  of  nationalities,  the  progress  of  de- 
mocracy, or  the  dignity  of  labour.  These  have  now  taken 
the  place  of  those  dogmatic  questions  which  in  the  sixteenth 
century  formed  the  mains^mngs  of  the  policy  of  Christen- 
dom, and  which  in  the  nineteenth  century  have  become  en- 
tirely uninfluential. 

*  M.  de  Montalerabcrt,  in  his  Life  of  Zacordairc,  has  observed  of  La- 
inennais,  that  there  is  probably  no  instance  in  history  of  a  man  possessing  so 
eminently  the  gifts  of  a  great  hcresiarch  making  so  little  impression  by  his 
defectioji  from  the  Church,  and  failing  so  completely  to  become  the  nucleus  of 
a  sect.  After  all,  however,  this  was  qirite  natural.  The  course  which  La* 
mennais  pursued  stimulated  a  great  intellectual  movement ;  but  it  was  not,  an(] 
^as  never  intended  to  be,  in  the  direction  of  a  sect. 


188  EATIO^ALISM   m    EUROPE. 

This  is,  undoubtedly,  an  extremely  remarkable  and  an 
extremely  significant  contrast.  Honest  men  will  hardly 
deny  its  existence.  Wise  men  will  not  shut  their  eyes  to  the 
fact  or  refuse  to  look  steadily  at  its  consequences.  Coupled 
with  the  rationalistic  movement  that  has  taken  place  within 
Protestantism,  it  has  inclined  very  many  Avriters  to  conclude 
that  the  earlier  forms  of  Protestantism  were  merely  transi- 
tional; that  their  continued  existence  depends  not  on  any 
life  that  is  in  them,  but  on  the  force  of  habit  and  of  tradition ; 
that  perpetual  progress  in  the  domain  of  belief  is  the  natu- 
ral destiny  and  the  inevitable  lawof  Protestantism  ;  and  that 
the  fate  of  Lot's  wife  is  reserved  for  those  Churches  Avhich  look 
back  on  the  city  of  dogmatism  from  which  they  fled.  To  as- 
sume, however,  that  religious  life  has  been  extirpated  in 
Protestant  Churches,  because  they  appear  to  have  lost  the 
power  of  influencing  those  who  are  around  them,  is  to  look 
for  it  in  only  one  form.  It  is  to  ignore  the  intense  and  prac- 
tical fervour,  the  moralising  influences,  the  spirit  of  bold  and 
earnest  enquiry,  that  are  so  abundantly  found  v>"ithin  their 
borders.  To  infer  from  this  general  movement  that  dog- 
matic Protestantism  is  an  imperfect  development,  which  intel- 
lects unshackled  by  its  traditions  will  never  embrace,  and 
which  the  current  of  civilisation  must  ultimately  transform  or 
overthrow,  is  undoubtedly  far  more  plausible ;  yet,  as  an 
argument  against  tlie  truth  of  Protestantism,  it  is  based  en- 
tirely upon  the  assumption  that  the  general  tendency  of  civ- 
ilisation is  necessarily  towards  truth  rather  than  error.  One 
conclusion,  however,  we  may  most  certainly  and  most  safely 
draw  from  the  movement  we  are  considering.  It  is,  that  the 
general  current  and  bias  of  the  intellect  of  the  age  is*in  the 
direction  of  Pationalism ;  in  other  words,  that  there  is  a 
strong  predisposition  to  value  the  spirit  and  moral  element  of 


THE   MIEACLES    OF   THE   CHURCn.  189 

Christianity,  but  to  reject  dogmatic  systems  and  more  espe- 
cially miraculous  narratives. 

We  have  seen  that  this  tendency  was  not  uninfluential  in 
Tractarianism  itself,  although  that  system  was  organized  as 
a  protest  and  a  bulwark  against  the  tendencies  of  the  age. 
Among  those  who  are  usually  called  orthodox  Protestants,  it 
has  been  clearly  shown  in  the  rapid  decline  of  the  evidential 
school.  The  pre-eminence  that  school  obtained  in  England 
during  the  last  century  is  certainly  not  to  be  attributed  to 
any  general  tendency  towards  the  miraculous.  Lardner  and 
Paley  and  their  followers  acted  strictly  on  the  defensive,  and 
were  therefore  compelled  to  meet  tlieir  assailants  on  the 
ground  which  those  assailants  had  selected.  The  spirit  oi 
scepticism,  wdiich  at  the  Reformation  extended  only  to  the 
authority  of  particular  Churches  or  to  the  justice  of  par 
ticular  interpretations  of  Scripture,  had  gradually  expanded 
till  it  included  the  whole  domain  of  theology,  and  had  pro- 
duced a  series  of  violent  attacks  npon  the  miracles.  It  waft 
to  repel  these  attacks  that  the  evidential  school  arose,  and 
the  anrals  of  religious  controverey  narrate  few  more  com- 
plete vi^  tories  than  they  achieved.  Of  all  the  English  deisti- 
cal  works  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  influence  of  two 
and  only  two  survived  the  controversy.  Hume's  Essay  on 
Miracles,  though  certainly  not  unquestioned  and  unassailed, 
cannot  be  looked  upon  as  obsolete  or  uninfluential.  Gibbon 
remains  the  almost  undisputed  master  of  his  own  field,  but 
his  great  work  does  not  directly  involve,  though  it  undoubt- 
edly trenches  on,  the  subject  of  Christian  evidences.  But  if 
we  except  these  two,  it  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  a  more 
complete  eclipse  than  the  English  deists  have  undergone. 
Woolston  and  Tindal,  Collins  and  Chubb,  have  long  since 
passed  into  the  region  of  shadows,  and  their  works   have 


190  RATIONALISM   IX    EUROPE. 

mouldered  in  the  obscurity  of  forgetfulness.  Bolingbroke  is 
now  little  more  than  a  brilliant  name,  and  all  the  beauties  of 
his  matchless  style  have  been  unable  to  preserve  his  philos- 
ophy from  oblivion.  Shaftesbury  retains  a  certain  place  as 
one  of  the  few  disciples  of  idealism  who  resisted  the  influence 
of  Locke ;  but  his  importance  is  purely  historical.  His  cold 
and  monotonous  though  exquisitely  polished  dissertations 
have  fallen  into  general  neglect,  and  find  few  readers  and 
exercise  no  influence.  The  shadow  of  the  tomb  rests  upon 
them  all ;  a  deep  unbroken  silence,  the  chill  of  death,  sur- 
rounds them.  They  have  long  ceased  to  wake  any  interest, 
or  to  suggest  any  enquiries,  or  to  impart  any  impulse  to  the 
intellect  of  England.  This  was  the  result  of  the  English 
controversies  of  the  eighteenth  century,  which  on  the  con- 
servative side  consisted  mainly  of  a  discussion  of  miraculous 
evidence.  It  is  undoubtedly  very  remarkable  in  itself,  but 
much  more  so  when  we  contrast  it  with  what  was  taking 
place  in  Roman  Catholic  countries.  Voltaire  and  Rousseau 
not  only  succeeded  in  holding  their  ground,  but  they  met 
with  no  opponent  whom  the  wildest  enthusiasm  could  j^lace 
upon  their  level.  Their  works  elicited  not  a  single  refuta- 
tion, I  miglit  almost  say  not  a  single  argument  or  criticism, 
that  has  come  down  with  any  authority  to  our  own  day. 
Diderot,  Raynal,  and  several  other  members  of  the  party 
have  taken  a  place  in  French  literature  which  is  probably 
permanent,  and  which  is  certainly  far  higher  than  was  ob- 
\   tained  by  any  of  their  opponents. 

One  might  have  supposed  from  this  contrast  that  the 
evidential  school,  which  had  been  crowned  with  such  marked 
success,  would  have  enjoyed  a  great  and  permanent  populari- 
ty ;  but  this  expectation  has  not  been  realised.  In  Germany, 
Kant  from  the  beginning  pronounced  this  mode  of  reaecning 


TEE    MIRACLES    OF    THE    CHUKCII.  191 

to  be  unphilosopliical ;  ^  in  England,  Coleridge  succeeded  in 
bringing  it  into  complete  disrepute ;  and.  every  year  the  dis- 
inclination to  stake  the  truth  of  Christianity  on  the  proof  of 
miracles  becomes  more  manifest.  A  small  body  of  theolo- 
gians continue,  indeed,  to  persevere  in  the  old  plan,  and  no 
one  will  speak  of  their  labours  with  disrespect ;  yet  they  arc 
themselves  witnesses  to  the  generality  of  the  movement,  for 
they  complain  bitterly  that  they  are  labouring  in  a  wilder- 
ness, and  that  the  old  method  has  been  on  all  sides  aban- 
doned and  neglected. '^  We  find,  everywhere,  that  the  pre- 
vailing feeling  is  to  look  upon  the  defence  of  Christianity  as 
a  matter  not  external  to  but  part  of  religion.  Belief  is  re- 
garded not  as  the  result  of  an  historical  puzzle,  the  solution 
of  an  extremely  complicated  intellectual  problem  which  pre- 
sents fewest  difficulties  and  contradictions,  but  as  the  recog- 
nition by  conscience  of  moral  truth.  In  other  words,  religion 
in  its  proofs  as  in  its  essence  is  deemed  a  thing  belonging 
rather  to  the  moral  than  the  intellectual  portion  of  human 
nature.  Faith  and  not  reason  is  its  basis ;  and  this  faitli  is  a 
species  of  moral  perception.  Each  dogma  is  the  embodiment 
and  inadequate  expression  of  a  moral  truth,  and  is  worthless 
except  as  it  is  vivified  by  that  truth.  The  progress  of  criti- 
cism may  shift  and  vary  the  circumstances  of  an  historical 
faith,  the  advent  of  new  modes  of  thought  may  make  ancient 
creeds  lifeless  and  inoperative,  but  the  spirit  that  underlies 
them  is  eternal.  The  ideal  and  type  of  character  will  acquire 
new  fascination  when  detached  from  the  material  conceptions 
of  an  early  civilisation.  The  idolatry  of  dogmas  will  pass 
away ;  Christianity,  being  rescued  from  the  sectarianism  and 

'  On  Kant's  influence  on  German  Rationalism  see  Rose,  On  Protestantism 
in  Germany,  pp.  183-190. 

^  See,  for  example,  the  first  and  second  Essays  in  Aids  to  Faith. 


192  EATIOXALISM    IN    EUEOPE. 

intolerance  that  Imve  defaced  it,  will  shine  l3}'  its  own  moral 
splendonr,  and,  sublimated  above  all  the  sphere  of  contro- 
versy, will  assume  its  rightful  position  as  an  ideal  and  not  a 
system,  as  a  j)erson  and  not  a  creed. 

We  lind  also,  even  among  the  supporters  of  the  e-vidential 
school,  a  strong  tendency  to  meet  the  Rationalists,  as  it  were, 
halfway — to  maintain  that  miracles  are  valid  proofs,  but  that 
they  do  not  necessarily  imply  the  notion  of  a  violation  of 
natural  law  with  which  they  had  been  so  long  associated. 
They  are,  it  is  said,  performed  simply  by  the  application  cf 
natural  means  guided  by  supernatural  knowledge.  The  idea 
of  interference  can  present  no  difficulty  to  anyone  who  admits 
human  liberty ;  ^  for  those  who  acknowledge  that  liberty 
must  hold  that  man  has  a  certain  power  of  guiding  and  con- 
trolling the  laws  of  matter,  that  he  can  of  his  own  free  will 
produce  effects  which  would  not  have  been  produced  without 
his  intervention,  and  that  in  proportion  as  his  knowledge  of 
the  laws  of  nature  advances  his  power  of  adapting  them  to 
his  purposes  is  increased.  Tliat  mind  can  influence  matter 
is  itself  one  of  the  laws  of  nature.  To  adapt  and  modify 
general  laws  to  special  purposes  is  the  occupation  and  the 
characteristic  of  every  intelligence,  and  to  deny  this  power 
to  Divine  intelligence  seems  but  little  removed  from  atheism. 
It  is  to  make  the  Deity  the  only  torpid  mind  in  the  universe. 
There  is  therefore,  it  is  said,  nothing  improbable  in  the  belief 
tliat  Omniscience,  by  the  selection  of  natural  laws  of  which 
we  are  ignorant,  could  accomplish  all  those  acts  which  wc 
call  miraculous.^     According  to  this  notion,  a  miracle  would 

'■  See  Mansel's  'Essay  on  Miracles'  in  the  Aids  to  Faith. 

'  For  an  exposition  of  this  view  I  cannot  do  better  than  refer  to  an  article 
on  'The  Supernatural'  in  the  Edinhurgh  Review  for  October,  1862,  and  to  the 
works  there  referred  to.  I  select  a  few  sentences  from  the  article  which  con- 
tain the  substance  of  the  argument :  '  The  reign  of  law  in  nature  is  indeed,  as 


THE    MIRACLES    OF    THE    CIIUECII.  193 

not  differ,  geiierically,  from  a  human  act,  though  it  would 
still  he  strictly  availahle  for  evidential  j^urjijoses.  Miracles 
would  thus  he  separated  from  a  conception  Avith  which  almost 
all  the  controversialists  of  the  last  century  had  identified 
thera,  and  which  is  peculiarly  repugnant  to  the  tendencies  ol 
our  age. 

We  have  now  taken  a  sufficiently  extensive  survey  of  the 
history  of  miracles  to  enable  us  to  arrive  at  a  general  conclu- 
sion. We  have  seen  that  ever  since  that  revival  of  learning 
which  preceded  the  Reformation,  and  dispelled  the  torpor 
and  ignorance  in  which  Europe  had  been  for  centuries  im- 
mersed, the  human  mind  has  been  pursuing  on  this  subject  a 
uniform  and  an  unvarying  course.  The  degrees  in  which 
different  nations  and  cliurches  have  participated  in  the  move- 
ment have  been  very  various,  but  there  is  no  part  of  Europe 
which  has  been  uninfluenced  by  its  j^rogress.  Reactionary 
parties  have  themselves  reflected  its  character,  and  have  at 
last  been  swept  away  by  the  advancing  stream.     All  the 

far  as  we  can  observe,  universal.  But  the  common  idea  of  the  supernatural 
is  that  which  is  at  variance  with  natural  law,  above  it  or  in  violation  of  it. 
.  .  .  .  Hence  it  would  appear  to  follow  that,  to  a  man  thoroughly  pos- 
sessed of  the  idea  of  natural  law  as  universal,  nothing  ever  could  be  admitted 
as  supernatural.  .  .  .  But  then  we  must  understand  nature  as  including 
every  agency  which  we  see  entering,  or  can  conceive  from  analogy  capable  of 
entering,  into  the  causation  of  the  world.  .  .  .  The  power  of  men  in  re- 
spect of  physical  laws  extends  only,  first,  to  their  discovery  and  ascertainment, 
and  then  to  their  use.  ...  A  complete  knowledge  of  all  natural  laws 
would  give,  if  not  complete  power,  at  least  degrees  of  power  unmensely  greater 
than  those  which  we  now  possess.  .  .  .  The  relation  in  which  God  stands 
to  those  rules  of  His  government  which  are  called  laws  is,  of  course,  an  in- 
scrutable mystery ;  but  those  who  believe  that  His  will  does  govern  the  world 
must  believe  that,  ordinarily  at  least.  He  docs  govern  it  by  the  choice  and  use 
of  means ;  nor  have  we  any  certain  reason  to  beheve  that  He  ever  acts  other- 
wise. Signs  and  wonders  may  be  wrought,  for  aught  we  know,  by  similar 
instrumentality — by  the  selection  and  use  of  laws  of  which  men  knew  nothing.' 
That  miracles  wore  performed  simply  by  the  cmplo}^nent  of  unknown  natural 
laws  was  maintained  long  since  by  Malcbranche,  and  also,  I  think,  by  Butler. 
VOL.  I. — 13 


19-i  EATIOXALISM   IX   EUEOPE. 

weight  of  tracTition  and  of  learning,  all  the  energies  of  con- 
servatism of  every  khid,  have  been  opposed  to  its  progress, 
and  all  have  been  opposed  in  vain.  Generation  after  genera- 
tion the  province  of  the  miraculons  has  contracted,  and  the 
circle  of  scepticism  has  exj^anded.  Of  the  two  great  divis- 
ions of  these  events,  one  has  completely  perished.  Witch- 
craft and  diabolical  possession  and  diabolical  disease  have 
long  since  passed  into  the  region  of  fables.  To  disbelieve 
them  was  at  first  the  eccentricity  of  a  few  isolated  thinkers ; 
it  was  then  the  distinction  of  the  educated  classes  in  the 
most  advanced  nations  ;  it  is  now  the  common  sentiment  of 
all  classes  in  all  countries  in  Europe.  The  countless  miracles 
that  were  once  associated  with  every  holy  relic  and  w^ith 
every  village  shrine  have  rapidly  and  silently  disappeared. 
Year  by  year  the  incredulity  became  more  manifest  even 
where  the  theological  j^rofession  was  unchanged.  Their 
numbers  continually  lessened  until  they  at  last  almost  ceased ; 
and  any  attempt  to  revive  them  has  been  treated  with  a  gen- 
eral and  undisguised  contempt.  The  miracles  of  the  Fathers 
are  passed  over  with  an  incredulous  scorn,  or  with  a  signifi- 
cant silence.  The  rationalistic  spirit  has  even  attempted  to 
explain  away  those  w^hich  are  recorded  in  Scripture,  and  it 
has  materially  altered  their  position  in  the  systems  of  theol- 
ogy. In  all  countries,  in  all  churches,  in  all  parties,  among 
men  of  every  variety  of  character  and  opinion,  we  have 
found  the  tendency  existing.  In  each  nation  its  develop- 
ment has  been  a  measure  of  intellectual  activity,  and  has 
passed  in  regular  course  througli  the  different  strata  of 
society.  During  the  last  century  it  has  advanced  with  a 
vastly  accelerated  rapidity;  the  old  lines  of  demarcation 
have  been  everywhere  obscured,  and  the  spirit  of  Rational- 
ism has  become  the  o-reat  centre  to  which  the  intellect  ot' 


THE   MIRACLES    OF   THE.  CIIUKCII.  195 

Europe  is  manifestly  tending.  If  we  trace  the  progress  of 
the  movement  from  its  origin  to  the  present  day,  Ave  find 
that  it  has  completely  altered  the  Avhole  aspect  and  com- 
plexion of  religion.  AYhen  it  began,  Christianity  was  re- 
garded as  a  system  entirely  beyond  the  range  and  scope  of 
human  reason :  it  was  impious  to  question ;  it  was  impious 
to  examine ;  it  was  impious  to  discriminate.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  was  visibly  instinct  with  the  supernatural.  Miracles 
of  every  order  and  deo-ree  of  macrnitude  were  flashins^  forth 
incessantly  from  all  its  j^arts.  They  excited  no  scepticism 
and  no  surprise.  The  miraculous  element  pervaded  all  litera- 
ture, explained  all  difficulties,  consecrated  all  doctrines. 
Every  unusual  phenomenon  was  immediately  referred  to  a 
supernatural  agency,  not  because  there  was  a  passion  for  the 
improbable,  but  because  such  an  explanation  seemed  far  more 
simple  and  easy  of  belief  than  the  obscure  theories  of  science. 
In  the  present  day  Christianity  is  regarded  as  a  system 
which  courts  the  strictest  investigation,  and  which,  among 
many  other  functions,  was  designed  to  vivify  and  stimulate 
all  the  energies  of  man.  The  idea  of  the  miraculous,  which  a 
superficial  observer  might  have  once  deemed  its  most  prom- 
inent characteristic,  has  been  driven  from  almost  all  its  en- 
trenchments, and  now  quivers  faintly  and  feebly  through  the 
mists  of  eighteen  hundred  years.' 

^  When  men  first  grasped  the  truth  that  the  tendency  of  the  human  mind 
was  from  polytheism  to  monotheism,  there  were  some  who  at  once  rushed  on 
to  atheism,  cousiderinj:^  that  to  be  a  continuation  of  tlie  same  movement.  The 
disbelief  in  ghosts  led  many  to  materialism,. and  the  discovery  that  man  was 
not  the  centre  of  all  the  contrivances  of  nature  made  not  a  few  deny  final 
causes.  Just  so.  Science  having  shown  that  the  phenomena  of  nature  do  not 
result  (as  everyone  once  supposed)  from  direct  and  isolated  acts  of  interven- 
tion, multitudes  have  passed  by  the  impetus  of  the  movement  to  the  denial  of 
the  possibility  of  miracles.  To  say  that  Omnipotence  cannot  reverse  the  laws 
of  His  appointment  is  a  contradiction  in  terms.     To  say  tliat  an  Infinite  mind 


196  EATIOi-ifALISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

Such  lias  been  the  result  of  the  general  intellectual  move- 
ment we  have  been  reviewing.  To  those  who  believe  that 
the  highest  measure  of  truth  Ave  possess  is  furnished  by  an 
examination  of  the  successive  clevelo2:)ments  and  tendencies 
manifested  by  the  collective  wisdom  of  mankind,  it  will  bo 
invaluable  as  displaying  one  of  the  most  unquestionably  gen- 
eral movements  that  history  records.  To  those,  on  the  other 
hand,  Avho  separate  themselves  from  the  sj^ii'it  of  their  age, 
and  look  forward  to  the  future  as  to  a  period  of  predicted 
apostasy,  it  Avill  furnish  an  example  of  one  of  the  most  subtle 
and  powerful  distorting  influences  by  which  the  human  mind 
is  ensnared.  Such  persons  will  do  well  to  observe  that,  Avith 
the  exception  of  supernatural  disease  and  other  physical  phe- 
nomena, none  of  these  changes  have  been  efi*ected  by  the 
action  of  direct  arguments,  but  rather  by  a  predisposition 
arising  out  of  the  prevailing  habits  of  thought.  Scientific 
explanations  haA^e,  indeed,  been  given  of  some  alleged  mira- 

never  modifies  those  Iuavs  for  special  purposes,  and  iu  a  manner  that  exceeds 
both  human  c.ipacities  and  human  comprehension,  is  to  make  an  assertion  that 
is  unproved  and  contrary  to  analogy.  To  say  that  the  metaphysical  conception 
of  Infinity  precludes  the  notion  of  miracles  is  useless,  because  (as  Mansel  and 
others  hare  shown)  the  creation  of  the  world  is  equally  irreconcilable  with 
that  conception,  and  because  the  existence  of  evil  throws  all  such  reasoning 
into  hopeless  confusion.  To  say,  in  fine,  that  there  was  no  use  in  miracles  ac- 
companying a  revelation  in  an  early  stage  of  society,  is  completely  to  ignoi*c 
the  passion  for  the  wonderful  and  the  dim  perception  of  the  moral  which  are 
the  characteristics  of  such  a  society.  All  these  propositions  flow  naturally,  but 
not  legitimately,  out  of  the  reaction  against  the  '  Government  by  Miracle,'  in 
which  Europe  once  bcheved.  The  logical  consequences  of  the  movement  are, 
I  think,  twofold.  1.  The  difficulty  of  proving  miracles  satisfactorily  is  incal- 
culably increased,,  because  it  is  shown  that,  in  a  certain  phase  of  civilisation, 
the  belief  in  miracles  necessarily  arises,  and  that  many  tbousands,  which  are 
now  universally  rejected,  were  then  universally  believed,  supported  by  a  vast 
amount  of  evidence,  and  entirely  unconnected  with  imposition.  2.  Tlie  essen- 
tially moral  character  which  theology  progressively  acquires  renders  miraculovis; 
evidence  (except  for  a  particular  class  of  minds)  useless. 


THE    MIKACLES    OF   THE   CHUECH.  197 

cles,  but  it  is  an  historical  fact  that  those  explanations  were 
preceded  and  elicited  by  a  deep-seated  incredulity  on  the  sub- 
ject, an  instinctive  and  unreasoning  repugnance  to  tlic  old 
belief  which  had  long  been  manifest  in  literature.  They 
will  observe,  too,  that  if  this  repugnance  be  due  in  a  great 
measure  to  the  increasing  sense  of  law  which  physical  sci- 
ences produce,  it  has  been  at  least  as  closely  connected  with 
the  declining  influence  and  realisation  of  dogmatic  theology. 
When  theology  occupies  an  exceedingly  prominent  place  in 
the  affairs  of  life,  and  is  the  subject  towards  which  the 
thoughts  of  men  are  naturally  and  violently  directed,  the 
mind  will  at  last  take  a  theological  cast,  and  will  judge  all 
secular  matters  by  a  theological  standard.  In  a  period, 
therefore,  when  theology  is  almost  coextensive  with  intellec- 
tual exertion,  when  the  whole  scope  and  tendency  of  litera- 
ture, policy,  and  art  is  to  subserve  theological  interests,  and 
when  the  imaginations  of  men  are  habitually  inflamed  by  the 
subject  of  their  continual  meditations,  it  is  not  at  all  surpris- 
ing that  belief  in  existing  miracles  should  be  universal.  Such 
miracles  are  perfectly  congenial  with  the  mental  tone  and 
atmosphere  that  is  general.  The  imagination  is  constantly 
directed  towards  miraculous  events,  and  readily  forces  its 
conceptions  upon  the  reason.  When,  however,  the  terrestrial 
has  been  aggrandised  at  the  expense  of  the  theological ;  when, 
in  the  progress  of  civilisation,  art  and  literature  and  govern- 
ment become  in  a  great  measure  secularised ;  when  the  mind 
is  withdrawn  by  ten  thousand  intellectual  influences  from 
dogmatic  considerations,  and  when  the  traces  of  these  consid- 
erations become  confused  and  unrealised,  a  new  habit  of 
thought  is  gradually  acquired.  A  secular  atmosphere  is 
formed  about  the  mind.  The  measure  of  probability  is 
altered.     Men  formerly  expected  in  every  event  of  life  some- 


19S  RATIONALISM   IX   EUROPE. 

thing  analogous  to  the  theological  notions  on  which  tliey 
were  continually  meditating;  they  now  judge  everything  by 
a  secular  standard.  Formerly  their  natural  impulse  was  to 
explain  all  phenomena  by  miracle ;  it  is  now  to  explain  them 
by  science.  This  is  simply  the  result  of  a  general  law  of  the 
liuman  mind,  which  is  exemplified  on  countless  occasions  in 
the  intercourse  of  society.  The  soldier,  the  lawyer,  and  the 
scholar  will  each  obtain  from  his  special  pursuit  a  certain 
cast  and  character  of  thought,  which  he  will  display  on  all 
subjects,  even  those  most  remote  from  his  immediate  province. 
Just  so,  an  age  that  is  immersed  in  theology  will  judge 
everything  by  a  tlieological,  that  is  to  say  a  miraculous 
standard;  and  an  age  that  is  essentially  secular  will  judge 
everything  by  a  secular,  that  is  to  say  a  rationalistic 
standard.  It  is  therefore,  I  conceive,  no  chance  coinci- 
dence that  the  decline  of  the  sense  of  the  miraculous  has 
everywhere  accompanied  that  movement  of  thought  which 
has  banished  dogmatic  influence  from  so  many  departments 
of  life,  and  so  greatly  restricted  it  in  others.  In  the  j^resent 
day  this  tendency  has  become  so  powerful  that  its  influence 
extends  to  every  earnest  thinker,  even  though  he  does  not 
as  an  individual  participate  in  the  indifierence  to  dogma 
from  which  it  sprang.  Whoever  succeeds  in  emancipating 
himself  from  the  special  influences  of  education  and  associa- 
tions by  which  his  opinions  are  in  the  first  instance  deter- 
mined, will  find  the  general  course  and  current  of  contempo- 
rary literature  the  most  powerful  attraction  to  his  mind. 
Tliere  are,  it  is  true,  a  few  exceptions  to  tliis  rule.  There 
are  some  intellects  of  such  a  repellent  character,  that  the  sim- 
ple fact  that  one  class  of  opinions  or  tendencies  is  dominant 
in  their  neighbourhood  Avill  be  suflicient  to  induce  them  tc 
adopt   the    opposite.     These,  however,  are   the    exce])tions. 


THE    MIRACLES    OF    THE    CIIUECn.  199 

With  most  persons  who  really  endeavour  to  form  their 
opinions  by  independent  thought,  contemporary  literature 
exercises  an  attracting  and  controlling  influence  which  is 
extremely  jDOwerful  if  it  is  not  irresistible.  Owing  to  cir- 
cumstances which  I  shall  not  pause  to  examine,  it  flashes 
upon  them  with  a  force  and  directness  Avhich  is  not  possessed 
by  the  literature  of  any  earlier  period.  The  general  tone  of 
thought  pervading  it  colours  all  their  reasonings,  influences 
and,  if  they  are  unconscious  of  its  action,  determines  all  their 
conclusions.  In  the  present  day  this  influence  is  essentially 
rationalistic. 

There  is  one  other  subject  of  great  importance  which  is 
naturally  suggested  by  the  movement  we  have  been  consid- 
ering. We  have  seen  how  profoundly  it  has  altered  the 
character  of  Christian  Churches.  It  has  changed  not  only 
the  outward  form  and  manifestations,  but  the  habits  of 
thought,  the  religious  atmosphere  which  was  the  medium 
through  which  all  events  Avere  contemplated,  and  by  which 
all  reasonings  were  refracted.  No  one  can  doubt  that  if  the 
modes  of  thought  now  prevailing  on  these  subjects,  even  in 
Koman  Catholic  countries,  could  have  been  presented  to  the 
mind  of  a  Christian  of  the  twelfth  century,  he  would  have 
said  that  so  complete  an  alteration  would  involve  the  abso- 
lute destruction  of  Christianity.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  most 
of  these  modifications  were  forced  upon  the  reluctant  Church 
by  the  pressure  from  without,  and  were  specially  resisted 
and  denounced  by  the  bulk  of  the  clergy.  They  were  repre- 
sented as  subversive  of  Christianity.  The  doctrine  that  re- 
ligion could  be  destined  to  pass  through  successive  phases  of 
development  was  pronounced  to  be  emphatically  unchristian. 
The  ideal  church  was  always  in  the  past ;  and  immutability, 
if  not  retrogression,  was  deemed  the  condition  of  life.     We 


200  EATIONALISM   IX    EUROPE. 

can  now  judge  this  resistance  by  the  clear  light  of  experience. 
Dogmatic  systems  have,  it  is  true,  been  materially  weakened ; 
they  no  longer  exercise  a  controlling  influence  over  the  cur- 
rent of  affiiirs.  Persecution,  religious  wars,  absorbing  con- 
troversies, sacred  art,  and  theological  literature,  which  once 
indicated  a  passionate  interest  in  dogmatic  questions,  have 
passed  away  or  become  comparatively  uninfluential.  Eccle- 
siastical power  throughout  Europe  has  been  everywhere 
weakened,  and  weakened  in  each  nation  in  proportion  to  its 
intellectual  progress.  If  we  were  to  judge  the  present  po- 
sition of  Christianity  by  the  tests  of  ecclesiastical  history,  if 
we  were  to  measure  it  by  the  orthodox  zeal  of  the  great  doc- 
tors of  the  past,  we  might  well  look  upon  its  prospects  with 
the  deepest  despondency  and  alarm.  The  spirit  of  the 
Fathers  has  incontestably  faded.  The  days  of  Athanasius 
and  Augustine  have  passed  away  never  to  return.  The 
whole  course  and  tendency  of  thought  is  flowing  in  another 
direction.  The  controversies  of  bygone  centuries  ring  with 
a  strange  hollowness  on  the  ear.  But  if,  turning  from  eccle- 
siastical historians,  we  apply  the  exclusively  moral  tests 
which  the  ]N"ew  Testament  so  invariably  and  so  emphatically 
enforces,  if  we  ask  whether  Christianity  has  ceased  to  pro- 
duce the  living  fruits  of  love  and  charity  and  zeal  for  truth, 
the  conclusion  we  should  arrive  at  would  be  very  diflerent. 
If  it  be  true  Christianity  to  dive  with  a  passionate  charity  in- 
to the  darkest  recesses  of  misery  and  of  vice,  to  irrigate  every 
quarter  of  the  earth  with  the  fertilising  stream  of  an  almost 
boundless  benevolence,  and  to  include  all  the  sections  of  hu- 
manity in  the  circle  of  an  intense  and  efficacious  sympathy; 
if  it  be  true  Christianity  to  destroy  or  weaken  the  barriers 
which  had  separated  class  from  class  and  nation  from  nation, 
to  free  war  from  its  harshest  elements,  and  to  make  a  con- 


THE   MIKACLES    OF   THE   CIIUECU.  201 

scioiisness  of  essential  equality  and  of  a  genuine^  fraternity 
dominate  over  all  accidental  differences ;  if  it  be,  above  all, 
true  Christianity  to  cultivate  a  love  of  truth  for  its  own  sake, 
a  spirit  of  candour  and  of  tolerance  tOAvards  those  with 
whom  we  differ — if  these  be  the  marks  of  a  true  and  healthy 
Christianity,  then  never  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles  has  it 
been  so  vigorous  as  at  present,  and  the  decline  of  dogmatic 
systems  and  of  clerical  influence  has  lo'ien  a  measure  if  not  a 
(^ause  of  its  advance. 


CHAPTER  III. 

.ESTHETIC,    SCIENTIFIC,    AND    MOEAL    DEVELOPMENTS 
OF  EATIONALISM. 

The  i^receding  chapters  will,  I  trust,  have  sufficiently 
sliowii  that  during  the  last  three  centuries  the  sense  of  the 
miraculous  has  been  steadily  declining  in  Europe,  that  the 
movement  has  been  so  universal  that  no  church  or  class  of 
miracles  has  altogether  escaped  its  influence,  and  that  its 
causes  are  to  be  sought  much  less  in  special  arguments  beiir- 
ing  directly  upon  the  question  than  in  the  general  intellec- 
tual condition  of  society.  In  this,  as  in  all  other  great  his- 
torical developments,  we  have  two  classes  of  influences  to 
consider.  There  are  certain  tendencies  or  predispositions 
resulting  from  causes  that  are  deeply  imbedded  in  the  civili- 
sation of  the  age  which  create  the  movement,  direct  the 
stream  of  opinions  wdth  irresistible  force  in  a  given  direction, 
and,  if  we  consider  only  great  bodies  of  men  and  long  pe- 
riods of  time,  exercise  an  almost  absolute  authority.  There 
is  also  the  action  of  sjDecial  circumstances  and  individual 
genius  upon  this  general  progress,  retarding  or  accelerating 
its  advance,  giving  it  in  different  countries  and  in  different 
spheres  of  society  a  peculiar  character,  and  for  a  time  asso- 
ciating it  Avith  movements  with  which  it  has  no  natural  con- 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   EATIOXALISM.  203 

nection.  I  have  endeavoured  to  show,  that  while  numerous 
circumstances  growing  out  of  the  complications  of  society 
have  more  or  less  influenced  the  history  of  the  decline  of  the 
miraculous,  there  are  two  causes  which  dominate  over  all 
others,  and  are  themselves  very  closely  connected.  One  of 
these  is  the  increasing  sense  of  law,  produced  by  physical 
sciences,  which  predis]30ses  men  more  and  more  to  attribute 
all  the  phenomena  that  meet  them  in  actual  life  or  in  history 
to  normal  rather  than  to  abnormal  agencies  ;  the  other  is  the 
diminution  of  the  influence  of  theology,  partly  from  causes 
that  lie  within  itself,  and  partly  from  the  great  increase  of 
other  subjects,  which  inclines  men  to  judge  all  matters  by  a 
secular  rather  than  by  a  theological  standard. 

But,  as  we  have  already  in  some  degree  perceived,  and  as 
we  shall  hereafter  see  more  clearly,  this  history  of  the  mi- 
raculous is  but  a  single  part  or  aspect  of  a  much  wider 
movement,  which  in  its  modern  phases  is  usually  designated 
by  the  name  of  Rationalism.  The  process  of  thought,  that 
makes  men  recoil  from  the  miraculous,  makes  them  modify 
their  views  on  many  other  questions.  The  expectation  of 
miracles  grows  out  of  a  certain  conception  of  the  habitual 
government  of  the  world,  of  the  nature  of  the  Supreme 
Being,  and  of  the  manifestations  of  His  power,  which  are  all 
more  or  less  changed  by  advancing  civilisation.  Sometimes 
this  change  is  displayed  by  an  open  rejection  of  old  beliefs. 
Sometimes  it  appears  only  in  a  change  of  interpretation  or 
of  realisation  ;  that  is  to  say,  men  gradually  annex  new  ideas 
to  old  words,  or  they  permit  old  opinions  to  become  virtually 
obsolete.  Each  different  phase  of  civilisation  has  its  pecu- 
liar and  congenial  views  of  the  system  and  government  of 
the  universe,  to  which  the  men  of  that  time  will  gravitate ; 
and  altliou2:h  a  revelation  or  a  u'reat  effort  of  human  genhis 


204:  EATIOXALISM    IN    EUEOPE. 

may  for  a  time  emancipate  some  of  them  from  the  conditiona 
of  the  age,  the  pressure  of  surrounding  influences  will  soon 
reassert  its  sway,  and  the  truths  that  are  unsuited  to  the 
time  will  remain  inoperative  till  their  appropriate  civilisation 
has  dawned. 

I  shall  endeavour  in  the  present  chapter  to  trace  the  dif- 
ferent phases  of  this  development — to  show  how  the  concep- 
tions both  of  the  nature  of  the  Deity  and  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  universe  are  steadily  modified  before  advancing 
knowledge,  and  to  analyse  the  causes  upon  which  those 
tnodifications  depend. 

It  has  been  said,  by  a  very  high  authority,  that  fet- 
ishism is  the  religion  which  men  who  are  altogether  uncivil- 
ised Avould  naturally  embrace ;  and,  certainly,  there  can  be 
no  question  that  the  general  characteristic  of  the  earlier 
stages  of  religious  belief  is  to  concentrate  reverence  upon 
matter,  and  to  attribute  to  it  an  intrinsic  efficacy.  This  fet- 
ishism, which  in  its  rudest  form  consists  of  the  worship  of  a 
certain  portion  of  matter  as  matter,  is  shown  also,  though  in 
a  modified  and  less  revolting  manner,  in  the  supposition  that 
certain  sacred  talismans  or  signs  possess  an  inherent  efficacy 
altogether  irrespective  of  the  dispositions  of  men.  Of  this 
nature  was  the  system  of  pagan  magic,  which  attributed  a 
supernatural  power  to  particular  herbs,  or  ceremonies,  or 
words,  and  also  the  many  rival  but  corresponding  supersti- 
tions that  were  speedily  introduced  into  Christianity.  The 
sign  of  the  cross  vfas  perhaps  the  earliest  of  these.  It  was 
adopted  not  simply  as  a  form  of  recognition  or  as  a  holy 
recollection,  or  even  as  a  mark  of  reverence,  but  as  a  weapon 
of  miraculous  power ;  and  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  are 
crowded  with  the  prodigies  it  performed,  and  also  with  the 
many  types  and  images  that  adumbrated  its  glory.     Thus 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   KATIONALISM.  205 

sve  are  reminded  by  a  writer  in  the  beginning  of  the  second 
century,  that  the  sea  could  not  be  traversed  without  a  mast, 
which  is  in  the  form  of  a  cross.  The  earth  becomes  fertile 
only  when  it  has  been  dug  by  a  spade,  which  is  a  cross.  The 
body  of  man  is  itself  in  the  same  holy  form.  So  also  is  his 
face,  for  the  eyes  and  nose  together  form  a  cross ;  a  fact  to 
which  Jeremiah  probably  alluded  when  he  said,  '  The  breath 
of  our  nostrils  is  the  anointed  of  the  Lord.'  ^ 

Speculations  no  less  strange  and  far-fetched  were  directed 
to  the  baptismal  water.  The  efficacy  of  infant  baptism, 
which  had  been  introduced,  if  not  in  the  Apostolic  age,  at 
least  immediately  aft^r,  was  regarded  as  quite  independent 
of  any  moral  virtues  either  in  the  recipient  or  those  about 
him ;  and  in  the  opinion  of  some  a  spiritual  change  was  ef- 
fected by  the  water  itself,  without  any  immediate  cooperation 
of  the  Deity,  by  a  j^ower  that  had  been  conferred  upon  the 
element  at  the  period  of  the  creation. ■  The  incomparable 
grandeur  of  its  position  in  the  universe  was  a  theme  of  the 
most  rapturous  eloquence.  When  the  earth  was  still  buried 
in  the  night  of  chaos,  before  the  lights  of  heaven  had  been 


^  Justyn  Martyr,  Apol.  i.  Augustine  thought  the  wooden  ark  floating  on 
the  Deluge  a  type  of  the  cross  consecrating  the  baptismal  waters  ;  and  Bede 
found  a  similar  type  in  the  rod  of  Moses  stretched  over  the  Red  Sea.  Another 
wise  commentator  suggested  that  Isaac  had  been  saved  from  death,  because, 
when  ascending  the  mountain,  he  bore  the  '  wood  of  sacrifice '  on  his  shoulder. 
The  cross,  however,  seldom  or  never  appears  in  art  before  the  vision  of  Con- 
stantine.  At  first  it  was  frequently  represented  richly  ornamented  with  gems 
or  flowers.     As  St.  Fortunatus  writes  : — 

'  Arbor  decora  et  fulgida 
Ornata  regis  purpura, 
Electa  dig-no  stipite 
Tarn  sancta  membra  tangcrc.' 
The  letter  Tau,  as  representing  the  cross,  was  specially  reverenced  as  opposed 
to  Theta,  the  unlucky  letter — the  initial  of  Odvarog. 

^  See  the  curious  argument  in  Tortullian,  De  Bapt.  c.  5,  G,  Y,  8. 


206  EATIOXALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

called  into  being,  or  any  living  creature  had  tenanted  tlic 
eternal  solitude,  Avater  existed  in  all  the  plenitude  of  its  per- 
fection, veiling  the  unshapen  earth,  and  glorified  and  sancti- 
fied for  ever  as  the  chosen  throne  of  the  Deity.  By  water 
God  separated  the  heavens  from  the  earth.  "Water  became 
instinct  with  life  Avhen  the  earth  was  still  barren  and  unin- 
habited. In  the  creation  of  man  it  might  aj^pear  at  first 
sight  as  if  its  position  was  ignored,  but  even  here  a  more 
matured  reflection  dispelled  the  difficulty.  For  in  order  that 
the  Almighty  should  mould  the  earth  into  the  human  form, 
it  was  obviously  necessary  that  it  should  have  retained  some- 
thing of  its  former  moisture  ;  in  other, words,  that  it  should 
have  been  mixed  with  water. ^ 

Such  was  the  direction  in  which  the  human  mind  drifted, 
witli  an  ever-increasing  rapidity,  as  the  ignorance  and  intel- 
lectual torpor  became  more  general.  The  same  habit  of 
thought  was  soon  displayed  in  every  department  of  theology, 
and  countless  charms  and  amulets  came  into  use,  the  simple 

^  '  Xon  enim  ipsius  quoque  hominis  figurandi  opus  sociantibus  aquis  abso* 
latum  est ;  de  terra  materia  eouveuit,  non  tamen  habilis  nisi  humecta  et  succida, 
quam  scilicet  ante  quartum  diem  segregatoe  aquas  in  stationem  suam  superstite 
humore,  limo  temperant.'  (TertuUian,  De  Bapiismo,  c.  iii.)  From  this  notion 
of  the  sanctity  of  water  grew  the  c;istom  of  swimming  witches — for  it  was 
believed  that  everything  tainted  with  diabolical  presence  was  repelled  by  it  and 
unable  to  sink  into  its  depths  (Binsfeldius,  De  Confess.  Mai.  p.  315) — and  also 
probably  the  many  legends  of  transformed  men  restored  to  their  natural  con- 
dition by  crossing  a  stream.  Among  the  ancient  philosophers,  Thales  had 
esteemed  water  the  origin  of  all  things,  which  more  than  one  Father  regarded 
as  a  kind  of  inspiration.  Thus  Minucius  Felix  :  '  Milesius  Thales  rerum  initium 
aquam  dixit :  Deum  autem  cam  mcutcm  quoe  ex  aqua  cuncta  formaverit. 
Vidcs  philosophi  principalis  nobiscum  peuitus  opinionem  consonare.'  ( Orta- 
viiis,  c.  xix.)  The  belief  in  the  expiatory  power  of  water  was  forcibly  rebuked 
by  Ovid  :— 

'Ah  !  nimium  faciles,  qui  tristia  crimma  cccdis 
Flumincii  tolli  posse  putatis  aqn-1 ! ' 
{Fast.  lib.  ii.) 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   EATIOXALISM.  207 

possession  of  vrluch  ■^\'as  supposed  to  guarantee  tlie  owner 
against  all  e\ils,  both  spiritual  and  temporal.  Indeed,  it 
may  be  questioned  whether  this  form  of  fetishism  was  ever 
more  prominent  in  2^aganism  than  in  mediaeval  Christianity. 

Wlien  men  pass  from  a  state  of  pure  fetishism,  the  next 
conception  they  form  of  the  Divine  nature  is  anthropomor- 
p>hism,  which  is  in  some  respects  very  closely  connected  with 
the  preceding,  and  which,  like  it,  is  diffused  in  a  more  or  less 
modified  form  over  the  belief  of  almost  all  uncivilised  na- 
tions. Those  who  hav^e  ceased  to  attribute  power  and  virtue 
to  inert  matter,  regard  the  universe  as  the  sphere  of  the 
operations  of  spiritual  beings  of  a  nature  strictly  analogous 
to  their  own.  They  consider  every  unusual  phenomenon  the 
direct  and  isolated  act  of  an  unseen  agent,  pointed  to  some 
isolated  object  and  resulting  from  some  passing  emotion.  The 
thunder,  the  famine,  or  the  pestilence  is  the  result  of  an 
ebullition  of  spiritual  anger ;  great  and  rapid  prosperity  is 
the  sign  of  spiritual  satisfaction.  But  at  the  same  time  the 
feebleness  of  imagination  which  in  this  stage  makes  men  un- 
able to  picture  the  Deity  other  than  as  an  unseen  man,  makes 
it  also  impossible  for  them  to  concentrate  their  thoughts  and 
emotions  upon  that  conception  Avithout  a  visible  representa- 
tion. For  while  it  is  a  matter  of  controversy  whetlier  or 
not  the  innate  faculties  of  the  civilised  man  transcend  those 
of  the  savage,  it  is  at  least  certain  that  the  intellectual  at- 
mosphere of  each  period  tells  so  soon  and  so  powerfully  upon 
all  men,  that  long  before  matured  age  the  two  classes  are  al- 
most as  different  in  their  capacities  as  in  their  acquirements. 
The  civilised  man  not  only  knows  more  than  the  savage,  he 
possesses  an  intellectual  strength,  a  power  of  sustained  and 
patient  thought,  of  concentrating  his  mind  steadily  upon  the 
unseen,  of  disengaging  his  conceptions  from  the  images  of 


208  KATIOXALISM   IX    EUROPE. 

tlie  senses,  wliich  the  other  is  unahle  even  to  imagine.  Pre- 
sent to  the  savage  the  conception  of  an  unseen  Being,  to  "be 
adored  without  the  assistance  of  any  representation,  and  he 
will  be  unable  to  grasp  it.  It  will  have  no  force  or  palpable 
reality  to  his  mind,  and  can  therefore  exercise  no  influence 
over  his  life.  Idolatry  is  the  common  religion  of  the  savage, 
simply  because  it  is  the  only  one  of  which  his  intellectual 
condition  will  admit,  and,  in  one  form  or  another,  it  must 
continue  until  that  condition  has  been  changed. 

Idolatry  may  be  of  two  kinds.  It  is  sometimes  a  sign 
of  progress.  When  men  are  beginning  to  emerge  from  the 
pure  fetishism  which  is  probably  their  first  stage,  they  carve 
matter  into  the  form  of  an  intelligent  being  ;  and  it  is  only 
Avhen  it  is  endowed  with  that  form,  that  they  attribute  to  it 
a  divine  character.  They  are  still  worshipping  matter,  but 
their  fetishism  is  fading  into  anthropomorphism.  Sometimes, 
again,  men  who  have  once  risen  to  a  conception  of  a  pure 
and  spiritual  Being,  sink,  in  consequence  of  some  convulsion 
of  society,  into  a  lower  level  of  civilisation.  They  will  then 
endeavour  to  assist  their  imaginations  by  representations  of 
the  object  of  their  worship,  and  they  will  very  soon  attrib- 
ute to  those  representations  an  intrinsic  eflicacy. 

It  will  appear  from  the  foregoing  principles  that,  in  the 
early  anthropomorphic  stages  of  society,  visible  images  form 
the  channels  of  religious  devotions  ;  and,  therefore,  as  long  as 
those  stages  continue,  the  true  history  of  theology,  or  at  least 
of  tlie  emotional  and  realising  parts  of  theology,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  history  of  art.  Even  outside  the  pale  of  Chris- 
tianity, there  is  scarcely  any  instance  in  which  the  national 
reli2;ion  has  not  exercised  a  Gjreat  and  dominating  influence 
over  the  national  art.  Thus,  for  example,  the  two  ancient 
nations  in  which  the  esthetic  development  failed   most  ro- 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   KATIOXALISM.  209 

markably  to  keep  pace  with  the  general  civilisation  were  the 
Persians  and  the  Egyptians.  Tlie  lire  that  was  Avorshipped 
by  the  first  formed  a  fetish,  at  once  so  simple  and  so  sub- 
lime, that  it  rendered  useless  the  productions  of  the  chisel ; 
while  the  artistic  genius  of  Egypt  was  paralysed  by  a  relig- 
ion which  branded  all  innovation  as  a  crime,  made  the  pro- 
fession of  an  artist  compulsory  and  hereditary,  rendered  the 
knowledge  of  anatomy  impossible  by  its  prohibition  of  dis- 
section, and  taught  men  by  its  elaborate  symbolism  to  look 
at  every  natural  object,  not  for  its  own  sake,  but  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  something  else.  Thus,  again,  among  the  nations 
that  were  especially  distinguished  for  their  keen  sense  of  the 
beautiful,  India  and  Greece  are  preeminent ;  but  there  is  this 
important  difference  between  them.  The  Indian  religion  ever 
soared  to  the  terrible,  the  unnatural,  and  the  prodigious  ;  and 
consequently  Indian  art  was  so  comj)letely  turned  away  from 
nature,  that  all  faculty  of  accurately  copying  it  seems  to 
have  vanished,  and  the  simplest  subject  was  interwoven  with 
grotesque  and  fanciful  inventions.  The  Greek  religion,  on 
the  other  hand,  was  an  almost  pure  naturalism,  and  therefore 
Greek  art  was  simply  nature  idealised,  and  as  such  has  be- 
come the  universal  model.  ^ 

But  it  is  with  Christian  art  that  we  are  now  especially 
concerned,  and  it  is  also  Christian  art  which  most  faithfully 
reflects  the  different  stages  of  religious  development,  ena- 

^  See  "Winckelmann,  Hist,  of  Art  ;  Raoul-Rocliette,  Cours  iV  Archeologk  ; 
and  the  lectures  of  Barry  and  Fuscli.  This  particular  characteristic  of  Indian 
art  has  been  forcibly  noticed  by  Mr.  Euskin  in  one  of  his  Edinburgh  lectures. 
Lcssing  ascribes  the  imperfections  of  Persian  art  to  its  almost  exclusive  employ- 
ment for  military  subjects  ;  but  this  was  itself  a  consequence  of  the  small  en- 
couragement religion  gave  to  art.  On  the  great  difference  of  the  ideal  of 
beauty  in  different  nations,  which  has  also  exercised  a  great  influence  on  the 
development  of  art,  sec  some  curious  evidence  collected  by  Cli.  Comte,  Traile 
de  Legislation,  liv.  iii.  ch.  4. 
VOL.  I. — 14 


210  EATIOXALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

bling  us  to  trace,  not  merely  successive  phases  of  belief,  but, 
what  is  much  more  important  for  my  present  purpose,  succes- 
sive phases  of  religious  realisation. 

The  constant  fall  of  the  early  Jews  into  idolatry,  in  spite 
of  the  most  repeated  commands  and  the  most  awful  punish- 
ments, -^vhile  it  shows  clearly  how  irresistible  is  this  tendency 
in  an  early  stage  of  society,  furnished  a  warning  which  was 
at  first  not  altogether  lost  upon  the  Christian  Church.  It  is 
indeed  true  that  art  had  so  long  been  associated  with  pagan- 
ism— its  subjects,  its  symbolism,  and  its  very  tone  of  beauty, 
were  so  derived  from  the  old  mythology — that  the  Christian 
artists,  who  had  j^robably  in  many  cases  been  formerly  pa^ 
gan  artists,  introduced  a  considerable  number  of  the  ancient 
conceptions  into  their  new  sphere.  But,  although  this  fact 
is  2^erfectly  incontestable,  and  although  the  readiness  with 
w^hich  pagan  imagery  was  admitted  into  the  symbolism  of 
the  Church  forms  an  extremely  curious  and  instructive  con- 
trast to  the  tone  which  most  of  the  Fathers  adopted  towards 
the  pagan  deities,  nearly  all  these  instances  of  a23pro23riation 
were  singularly  judicious,  and  the  general  desire  to  avoid 
anything  that  might  lead  to  idolatrous  worship  Avas  very 
manifest. 

The  most  important  and  the  most  beneficial  effect  of  pa- 
gan traditions  upon  Christian  art  was  displayed  in  its  gene- 
ral character.  It  had  always  been  a  strict  rule  among  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  to  exclude  from  sepulchral  decorations 
every  image  of  sadness.  The  funerals  of  the  ancients  were, 
indeed,  accompanied  by  great  displays  of  exaggerated  and 
artificial  lamentation;  but  once  the  ashes  were  laid  in  the 
tomb,  it  was  the  business  of  the  artist  to  employ  all  his  skill 
in  depriving  death  of  its  terror.  Wreaths  of  flowers,  Bac- 
chic dances,  liunts,  or  battles,  all  the  exuberance  of  the  most 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    EATIOXALISM.  211 

buoyant  life,  all  tbe  images  of  passion  or  of  revelry,  were  sculp- 
tured around  the  tomb ;  while  the  genii  of  the  seasons 
indicated  the  inevitable  march  of  time,  and  the  masks  that 
adorned  the  corners  showed  that  life  was  but  a  player's  part, 
to  be  borne  for  a  few  years  "\\dth  honour,  and  cast  aside  with- 
out regret. 

The  influence  of  this  tradition  was  shown  in  a  very  re- 
markable Avay  in  Christianity.  At  first  all  Christian  art  was 
sepulchral  art.  The  places  that  Avere  decorated  were  the 
Catacombs ;  the  chapels  were  all  surrounded  by  the  dead ; 
the  altar  upon  which  the  sacred  mysteries  were  celebrated 
was  the  tomb  of  a  martyr.^  According  to  mediieval  or  even 
to  modern  ideas,  we  should  have  imagined  that  an  art  grow- 
ing up  under  such  circumstances  would  have  assumed  a  sin- 
gularly sombre  and  severe  tone,  and  this  expectation  would 
be  greatly  heightened  if  we  remembered  the  violence  of  the 
persecution.  The  very  altar-tomb  around  which  the  Chris- 
tian painter  scattered  his  ornaments  with  most  profusion  was 
often  associated  with  the  memory  of  sufferings  of  the 
most  horrible  and  varied  character,  and  at  the  same  time 
with  displays  of  heroic  constancy  that  might  Avell  have  in- 
A'itcd  the  talents  of  the  artist.  Passions,  too,  were  roused  to 
tlie  highest  point,  and  it  would  seem  but  natural  that  the 
great*  and  terrible  scenes  of  Christian  vengeance  should  be 
depicted.  Yet  nothing  of  this  kind  appears  in  the  Cata- 
combs. AYith  two  doubtful  exceptions,  one  at  least  being 
of  the  very  latest  period  of  art,  there  are  no  representations 

'  This  is  the  origin  of  the  custom  in  the  Catholic  Church  of  pUicinp;  relics 
of  the  martyrs  beneath  the  altars  of  the  churches.  It  was  also  connected  vvith 
the  passage  in  the  Revelations  about  the  souls  that  wei'e  beneath  the  altar  of 
God.  In  most  early  churches  there  was  a  subterranean  chapel  below  the  high 
allar,  as  a  memorial  of  the  Catacombs.  A  decree  of  the  Second  Council  of 
Kice  (a.d.  787)  forbade  the  consecration  of  any  church  without  relics. 


213  EATIONALISM   IN    EUKOPE. 

of  martyrdoms/  Daniel  unharmed  amid  the  lions,  the  unac- 
complished sacrifice  of  Isaac,  the  three  children  unscathed 
amid  the  flames,  or  St.  Peter  led  to  prison,  are  the  only  im- 
ages that  reveal  the  horrible  persecution  that  was  raging. 
There  was  no  disposition  to  perpetuate  forms  of  suffering,  no 
ebullition  of  bitterness  or  complaint,  no  thirsting  for  ven- 
geance. ISTeither  the  Crucifixion,  nor  any  of  the  scenes  of 
the  Passion,  were  ever  represented ;  nor  was  the  day  of  judg- 
ment, nor  Avere  the  sufferings  of  the  lost.  The  wreaths  of 
flowers  in  which  paganism  delighted,  and  even  some  of  the 
most  joyous  images  of  the  pagan  mythology,  w^ere  still  re- 
tained, and  were  mingled  with  all  the  most  beautiful  em- 
blems of  Christian  hopes,  and  with  representations  of  many 
of  the  miracles  of  mercy. 

This  systematic  excUision  of  all  images  of  sorrov/,  suffer- 
ing, and  vengeance,  at  a  time  that  seemed  beyond  all  others 
most  calculated  to  produce  them,  reveals  the  early  Church 
in  an  asj^ect  that  is  singularly  touching,  and  it  may,  I  think, 
be  added,  singularly  sublime.  The  fact  is  also  one  of  ex- 
treme importance  in  ecclesiastical  history.  For,  as  we  shall 
hereafter  have  occasion  to  see,  there  existed  among  some  of 
the  theologians  of  the  early  Church  a  tendency  that  was 
diametrically  opposite  to  this;  a  tendency  to  dilate  upon 
such  subjects  as  the  torments  of  hell,  the  vengeance  of  the 
day  of  judgment,  and,  in  a  w^ord,  all  the  sterner  portions  of 
Christianity,  which  at  last  became  dominant  in  tlie  Cliurch, 

^  M.  Raoul-Rocliettc  thinks  that  there  is  but  one  direct  and  positive  repre- 
sentation of  a  martyrdom — that  of  the  Virgin  Salome,  and  this  is  of  a  very  late 
period  of  decadence  {Tableau  des  Cafacombes,  p.  187).  The  same  writer  has 
collected  (pp.  191,  192)  a  few  instances  from  the  Fathers  in  which  representa- 
tions of  martyrdoms  in  the  early  basilicas  are  mentioned  ;  but  they  are  very 
fe\^',  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  of  the  broad  contrast  early  Christian 
art  in  this  respect  bears  to  that  of  the  tenth  and  follo^\in2  centuries. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   EATIONALISM.  213 

and  Avliicli  exercised  an  extremely  injurious  influence  over 
the  afiections  of  men.  Bnt  whatever  might  have  been  the 
case  with  educated  theologians,  it  was  quite  im^DOSsible  for 
this  tendency  to  be  very  general  as  long  as  art,  which  was 
then  the  expression  of  popular  realisations,  took  a  difierent 
direction.  The  change  in  art  was  not  fully  shown  till  late  in 
the  tenth  century.  I  have  already  had  occasion  to  notice 
the  popularity  which  representations  of  the  Passion  and  of 
the  day  of  judgment  then  for  the  lirst  time  assumed;  and  it 
may  be  added  that,  from  this  period,  one  of  the  main  objects 
of  the  artists  Avas  the  invention  of  new  and  horrible  tortures, 
which  were  presented  to  the  constant  contemplation  of  the 
faithful  in  countless  pictures  of  the  sufferings  of  the  martyrs 
on  earth,  or  of  the  lost  in  hell.^ 

The  next  point  which  esj^ecially  strikes  us  in  the  art  of 
the  Catacombs  is  the  great  love  of  sj^mbolism  it  evinced. 
There  are,  it  is  true,  a  few  isolated  pictures  of  Christ  and  of 
the  Virgin,  most  of  them  of  a  late  period ;  but  by  far  the 
greater  number  of  representations  were  obviously  symbolical, 
and  were  designed  exclusively  as  a  means  of  instruction. 
Of  these  symbols  many  were  taken  without  hesitation  from 
paganism.  Thus,  one  of  the  most  common  is  the  peacock, 
which  in  the  Church,  as  among  tlie  lieathen,  was  selected  as 
the  emblem  of  immortality.  Partly,  perhaps,  on  account  of 
its  surpassing  beauty,  and  partly  from  a  belief  that  its  flesh 
never  decayed,^  it  had  been  adopted  by  the  ancients  as  the 
nearest  realisation  of  the  conception  of  the  phoenix,  and  at  tlie 
funeral  of  an  empress  the  bird  was  sometimes  let  loose  from 


-  See  Raoiil-Rochette,    Tahlcm'.   des    Catacomhcs,  pp.   192-195;     Didron, 
jconograpMe  Clir'eiiennc. 

-  Which  St.  Augustine  said  he  had  ascertained  by  experiment  to  be  a  fact, 
md  vrhich  he  seemed  to  regard  as  a  miracle,     {Be  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  xxxi.,  c.  4.) 


214:  KATIOXALISM   IN    EUROPE. 

among  the  ashes  of  the  deceased/  Orpheus  drawing  all 
men  to  him  by  his  music,  symbolised  the  attractiv^e  power  of 
Christianity.^  The  masks  of  paganism,  and  especially  the 
masks  of  the  sun  and  moon,  which  the  pagans  adopted  as 
emblems  of  the  lapse  of  life,  continued  to  adorn  the  Christian 
sarcophagi,  the  last  being  probably  regarded  as  emblems  ef 
the  resurrection.  The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  the  genii 
of  the  seasons.^  Xor  was  this  by  any  means  the  only  form 
under  which  the  genii  were  represented.  The  ancients  re- 
garded them  as  presiding  over  every  department  of  nature, 

*  See  Ciampini,  Vetera  Monumenta,  pars  i.  p.  115;  and  Maitland,  On  the 
Catacombs.  Raoul-Rochette,  however,  seems  to  regard  the  peacock  rather  as 
the  symbol,  first  of  all  of  the  apotheosis  of  an  empress,  and  then  generally  of 
apotheosis,  the  peacock  having  been  the  bird  of  Juno,  the  empress  of  heaven. 

-  Orpheus  is  spoken  of  by  Eusebius  as  in  this  respect  symbohsiug  Christ. 
The  reverence  that  attached  to  him  probably  resulted  in  a  great  measure  from 
the  fact  that  among  the  many  apocryj^hal  prophecies  of  Christ  that  circulated 
in  the  Church,  some  of  the  most  conspicuous  were  ascribed  to  Orpheus.  See 
on  this  symbol,  Maitland,  On  the  Catacombs,  p.  110  ;  Raoul-Rochette,  Tab.  des 
Cat.  p.  128  ;  and,  for  a  full  examination  of  the  subject,  the  great  work  of 
Boldetti,  Osservazioni  sopra  i  Cimiteri  de'  Santi  Martyri  (Roma3,  1*720),  tom. 
i.  pp.  27-29.  M.  Rio  {Art  Chretien,  introd.  p.  36),  I  think  rather  fancifully, 
connects  it  with  the  descent  of  Orpheus  to  hell  to  save  a  soul.  As  other  ex- 
amples of  the  introduction  of  pagan  gods  into  Christian  ai't,  I  may  mention 
that  there  is  an  obscure  picture  in  the  catacomb  of  St.  CaUxtus,  which  R. 
Roehette  supposes  to  represent  Mercury  leading  the  souls  of  the  dead  to  judg- 
ment {Tab.  des  Cat.  pp.  148-151);  and  also  that  Hercules,  though  never,  I 
believe,  represented  in  the  Catacombs,  appears  more  than  once  in  the  old 
churches,  St.  Augustine  having  identified  him  with  Samson.  (See  on  this  rep- 
resentation, and  generally  on  the  connection  between  pagan  and  Christian  art, 
that  very  curious  and  learned  work,  Marangoni,  Delle  Cose  Gentilesche  e  Pro- 
fane Transportate  ad  uso  delle  Chiese  (Romae,  lYii),  pp.  50,  51.)  The  sphinx 
also  was  believed  by  some  of  the  early  Christians  (e.  g.  Clement  of  Alexandria) 
to  be  in  some  degree  connected  with  their  faith ;  for  they  supposed  it  to  be 
copied  from  the  Jewish  image  of  the  Cherubim,  but  they  never  reproduced  it. 
Some  later  antiquarians  have  attributed  this  curious  combination  of  the  Virgin 
and  the  Lion  to  the  advantages  Egypt  derives  from  these  signs,  through  \^hich 
the  sun  passes  at  the  period  of  the  inundation  of  the  Xile  (Caylus,  EenieU 
d''Antiq2iitcs,  t.  i.  p.  45). 

^  Marangoni,  DcUc  Cose  Gentilesche,  p.  45. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    TwATIOXALISM.  215 

and  many  ihouglit  that  a  se23arate  genius  watched  over  tlie 
destiny  of  each  man.  This  conception  very  naturally  coa- 
lesced with  that  of  guardian  angels/  and  the  pagan  repre- 
sentation of  the  genii  as  young  winged  boys,  naked,  and 
with  gentle  and  joyous  countenances,  became  very  common 
in  early  Christian  art,  and  passed  from  it  into  the  art  of 
later  days.  Even  now,  from  the  summit  of  the  baldacchino 
of  St.  Peter's,  the  genii  of  j)aganism  look  down  on  the 
proudest  ceremonies  of  Catholicism.  Once  or  twice  on  the 
Christian  sarcoi:)hagi  Christ  is  represented  in  triumph  with 
the  sky,  or  perhaps  more  correctly  '  the  waters  above  tlie 
firmament,'  beneath  his  feet,  in  the  form  of  a  man  extending 
a  veil  above  his  head,  the  habitual  pagan  representation  of 
an  aquatic  deity.^ 

In  addition  to  these  symbols,  which  were  manifestly  taken 
from  paganism,  there  were  others  inainly  or  exclusively  pro- 
duced by  the  Church  itself  Thus,  the  fish  was  the  usual  em- 
blem of  Christ,  chosen  because  the  Greek  word  forms  the 
initials  of  His  name  and  titles,^  and  also  because  Christians 
are  born  by  baptism  in  Avater.*  Sometimes,  but  much  more 
rarely,  the  stag  is  employed  for  the  same  purpose,  because  it 
bears  the  cross  on  its  forehead,  and  from  an  old  notion  that  it 
was  the  irreconcilable  enemy  of  serpents,  which  it  was  sup- 
posed to  hunt  out  and  destroy.^     Several  subjects  from  the 

^  All  this  is  fully  discussed  in  Marangoni. 

^  Ibid.  p.  45  ;vPiaoul-Rochette,  Tab.  des  Cat. 

^  'IxO'vg.  'lijGovQ  Xpiarbg  Oeov  vldg  Swrz/p.  The  initial  letters  of  the 
prophetic  verses  of  the  Sibyl  of  Erythra  (St.  Aug.  De  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  xviii.  cap. 
23).  The  dolphin  was  especially  selected  because  of  its  tenderness  to  its 
young 

*  '  Xos  pisciculi  secundum  'IxO'uv  nostrum  Jesam  Christum  in  aquii  nasci- 
mur.'     (Tertulllan,  De  Bapiismo,  c.  i.) 

*  Maury,  LCgendes  Fieuscs,  pp.  1 73-1*78.  This  notion  was,  I  imagine, 
pagan.     There  is  a  bas-relief  in  the  Vatican  which  seems  to  represent  a  stag 


216  EATIOXALISM   IX   EUROPE. 

Bible  of  a  symbolical  character  were  constantly  repeated. 
Such  were  N'oali  in  the  attitude  of  prayer  receiving  the  dove 
into  his  breast,  Jonah  rescued  from  the  fish's  mouth,  Moses 
striking  the  rock,  St.  Peter  with  the  wand  of  power,  the  three 
children,  Daniel  in  the  lions'  den,  the  Good  Shepherd,  the 
dove  of  peace,  the  anchor  of  hope,  the  crown  of  martyrdom, 
the  j^^'vlm  of  victory,  the  ship  struggling  through  the  waves 
to  a  distant  haven,  the  horse  bounding  onwards  to  the  goal. 
All  of  these  were  manifestly  symbolical,  and  Avere  in  no  de 
gree  the  objects  of  reverence  or  worship. 

When,  however,  the  first  purity  of  the  Christian  Church 
•was  dimmed,  and  when  the  decomposition  of  the  Roman 
empire  and  the  invasion  of  the  barbarians  overcast  the  civil- 
isation of  Europe,  the  character  of  art  was  speedily  changed, 
and  though  many  of  the  symbolical  representations  still  con 
tinned,  there  Avas  manifested  by  the  artists  a  constantly  in- 
creasing tendency  to  represent  directly  the  object  of  tlieii 
worship,  and  by  the  people  to  attach  a  peculiar  sanctity  to 
the  image. 

Of  all  the  forms  of  anthropomorphism  that  are  displayed 
in  Catholic  art,  there  is  probably  none  which  a  Protestant 
deems  so  repulsive  as  the  portraits  of  the  First  Person  of  the 
Trinity,  that  are  now  so  common.  It  is,  however,  a  very  re- 
markable fact,  which  has  been  established  chiefly  by  the  re- 
searches of  some  French  archreologists  in  the  present  cen- 


iu  the  act  of  attacking  a  serpent.  The  passage  in  the  Psalms,  about  the  hart 
panting  for  the  waters,'  was  mixed  up  with  this  symbol.  In  the  middle  ages, 
stags  were  invested  with  a  kind  of  prophetic  power.  See  also  Ciampini,  De 
Sacrh  ^dificils  (Romae),  p.  44 ;  and  the  very  curious  chapter  in  Arrlughi, 
Roma  Suhterranea,  torn.  ii.  pp.  G02-606.  The  stag  was  supposed  to  dread  the 
thunder  so  much,  that  through  terror  it  often  brought  forth  its  young  prema- 
turely ;  and  this  was  associated  with  the  passage,  '  The  voice  of  thy  thunder 
has  made  me  afraid.' 


DEVELOPMENTS   OF   RATIONALISM.  217 

tuiy,  that  these  portraits  are  all  comparatively  modern,  and 
that  the  period  in  which  the  superstition  of  Europe  was 
most  profound,  was  precisely  that  in  which  they  had  no  ex 
istence.^  In  an  age  when  the  religious  realisations  of  Chris- 
tendom were  habitually  expressed  by  visible  representa 
lions — when  the  nature  of  a  spirit  was  so  inadequately 
conceived  that  artists  never  for  a  moment  shrank  from  repre- 
senting purely  spiritual  beings — and  when  that  instinctive 
reverence  which  makes  men  recoil  from  certain  objects  as  too 
solemn  and  sublime  to  be  treated,  was  almost  absolutely  un- 
known— we  do  not  find  the  smallest  tendency  to  represent 
God  the  Father.  Scenes  indeed  in  which  He  acted  were  fre- 
quently depicted,  but  the  First  Person  of  the  Trinity  was 
invariably  superseded  by  the  Second.  Christ,  in  the  dress 
and  with  the  features  appropriated  to  Him  in  the  representa- 
tions of  scenes  from  the  N'ew  Testament,  and  often  with  the 
monogram  underneath  his  iigure,  is  represented  creating  man, 
condemning  Adam  and  Eve  to  labour,  speaking  with  Xoah, 
arresting  the  arm  of  Abraham,  or  giving  the  law  to  Moses.'' 
"With  the  exception  of  a  hand  sometimes  extended  from  the 
cloud,  and  occasionally  encircled  with  a  nimbus,  we  find  in 
this  period  no  traces  in  art  of  the  Creator.  At  first  we  can 
easily  imagine  that  a  purely  spiritual  conception  of  the 
Deity,  and  also  the  hatred  that  was  inspired  by  the  type  of  Ju- 
piter, would  have  discouraged  artists  from  attempting  such  a 
subject ;  and  Gnosticism,  which  exercised  a  very  great  influ- 

^  This  subject  has  been  Ijricfly  noticed  by  Raoul-Rochctte  in  his  Dlscours 
Bur  VArt  die  Christianisme  (ISM),  ip.  T;  and  by  Mam-j,  Ligendcs  Pieuses  ; 
but  the  full  examination  of  it  was  reserved  for  M.  Didron,  in  his  great  work, 
IconograpMe  Chrctienne,  Hist,  de  Dim  (Riris,  1843),  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant contributions  ever  made  to  Christian  archaeology.  See,  too,  Emeric 
David,  Hist,  de  la  Feinturi  au  Moyen  Age,  pp.  19-21. 

=  Didron,  pp.  17*7-182. 


21S  EATIOXALISM   I^nT    EUEOPE. 

ence  over  Christian  art,  and  which  emphatically  denied  tlic 
divdnity  of  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament,  tended  in  the 
same  direction  ;  but  it  is  very  unlikely  that  these  reasons 
can  have  had  any  weight  between  the  sixth  and  twelfth  cen- 
turies. For  the  more  those  centuries  are  studied,  the  more 
evident  it  becomes  that  the  universal  and  irresistible  ten- 
dency was  then  to  materialise  every  spiritual  conception,  to 
form  a  palpable  image  of  everything  that  was  reverenced,  to 
reduce  all  subjects  within  the  domain  of  the  senses.  This 
tendency,  unchecked  by  any  sense  of  grotesqueness  or  irrev- 
erence, was  shown  Avith  equal  force  in  sculpture,  painting, 
and  legends  ;  and  all  the  old  landmarks  and  distinctions  that 
had  been  made  between  the  orthodox  uses  of  pictures  and 
idolatry  had  been  virtually  swept  away  by  the  resistless  de- 
sire to  form  an  image  of  everything  that  was  worshipped, 
and  to  attach  to  that  image  something  of  the  sanctity  of  its 
object.  Yet  amid  all  this  no  one  thought  of  representing  the 
Supreme  Being.  In  that  condition  of  society  men  desired  a 
human  god,  and  they  consequently  concentrated  their  atten- 
tion exclusively  upon  the  Second  Person  of  the  Trinity  or 
upon  the  saints,  and  suffered  the  great  conception  of  the 
Father  to  become  practically  obsolete.  It  continued  of 
course  in  creeds  and  in  theological  treatises,  but  it  was  a 
void  and  sterile  abstraction,  which  had  no  place  among  tlie 
realisations  and  no  influence  on  the  emotions  of  mankind.  If 
men  turned  away  from  the  Second  Person  of  the  Trinity,  it 
was  only  to  bestow  their  devotions  upon  saints  or  martyrs. 
With  the  exception,  I  believe,  of  a  single  manuscript  of  the 
ninth  century,^  there  was  no  portrait  of  the  Father  till  the 
twelfth  century;  and  it  w^s  only  in  tire  fourteenth  century, 
when  the  revival  of  learning  had  become  marked,  that  these 

'  Eaoul-Roclietto,  Discours  sur  Ics  Tt/jjcs  de  VArt  Chritkn^  p.  Vl. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   KATIONxVLISM.  219 

portraits  became  common.^  From  that  time  to  the  age  of 
Raphael  the  steady  tendency  of  art  is  to  give  an  ever-in- 
creasing preeminence  to  the  Father.  At  first  His  position 
in  painting  and  sculpture  had  been  a  subordinate  one,  and 
He  was  only  represented  in  the  least  attractive  occupations,'' 
and  commonly,  through  a  desire  to  represent  the  coeternity 
of  the  Persons  of  the  Trinity,  of  the  same  age  as  His  Son. 
Gradually,  however,  after  the  fourteenth  century,  we  find 
the  Father  represented  in  every  painting  as  older,  more  ven- 
erable, and  more  prominent,  until  at  last  He  became  the  cen- , 
tral  and  commandino;  fio-nre  *  excitinsf  the  his^hest  deo-ree  of 
reverence,  and  commonly  represented  in  different  countries 
according  to  their  ideal  of  greatness.  In  Italy,  Spain,  and 
the  ultramontane  monasteries  of  France,  He  was  usually 
represented  as  a  Pope ;  in  Germany  as  an  Emperor ;  in  Eng- 
land and,  for  the  most  j^art,  in  France  as  a  King. 

In  a  condition  of  thought  in  whicb  the  Deity  was  only 
realised  in  the  form  of  man,  it  was  extremely  natural  that  tlie 
numbei-  of  divinities  should  be  multiplied.  The  chasm  be- 
tween the  two  natures  was  entirely  unfelt,  and  something  of 


^  Didron,  pp.  22'7-230. 

^  See  this  fact  worked  out  in  detail  in  Didron. 

^  '  On  pent  done  relativement  k  Dieu  le  Pere  partager  le  moyen  ^ge  en 
deux  periodes.  Dans  la  premiere,  qui  est  anterieure  au  XIV«  siecle,  la  figure 
du  Pere  sc  confond  avec  celle  du  Fils ;  c'est  le  Pils  qui  est  tout-puissant  et  qui 
fait  son  Pere  h  son  image  et  ressemblance.  Dans  la  seconde  pcriode,  apres  le 
XIII"  feiccle,  jusqu'au  XYP,  Jesus-Christ  perd  sa  force  d'assimilation  icono- 
graphique  et  se  laisse  vaincre  par  son  Pere.  C'est  au  tour  du  Fils  h  sc  revetir 
des  traits  du  Pere,  h  vieillir  et  rider  comme  lui.  .  .  .  Enfin,  depuis  les 
premiers  sieeies  du  Christianismc  jusqu'^  nos  jours  nous  voyons  le  Pere  croitre 
en  importance.  Son  portrait,  d'abord  interdit  par  les  Gnostiques,  se  montre 
timidement  ensuite  et  comme  deguise  sous  la  figure  de  son  Fils.  Puis  il  rcjette 
tout  accoutrement  etranger  et  prcnd  une  figure  speciale ;  puis  par  Raphael  et 
enfin  par  1' Anglais  Martin,  il  gagne  une  grave  et  une  admirable  physionomie 
qui  n'appartient  qu'il  lui.'     (Didron,  p.  22G.) 


220  EATIOXALISM   IN    EUROPE. 

the  Divine  character  was  naturally  reflected  upon  those  who 
were  most  eminent  in  the  Churcli.  The  most  remarkable 
histance  of  this  polytheistic  tendency  was  displayed  in  the 
deification  of  the  Virgin. 

A  conception  of  a  divine  person  or  manifestation  of  the 
female  sex  had  been  one  of  the  notions  of  the  old  Jewish 
Cabalists ;  and  in  the  first  century  Simon  JMagus  had  led 
about  with  him  a  woman  named  Helena,  who,  according  to 
the  Catholics,  Avas  simply  his  mistress,  but  whom  he  pro- 
claimed to  be  the  incarnation  of  the  Divine  Thought.^  This 
notion,  under  a  great  many  different  forms,  was  diffused 
through  almost  all  the  sects  of  the  Gnostics.  The  Supreme 
Being,  whom  they  very  jealously  distinguished  from  and 
usually  opposed  to  the  God  of  the  Jews,'  they  termed  '  The 
Unknown  Father,'  and  they  regarded  Him  as  directly  inac- 
cessible to  human  knowledge,  but  as  revealed  in  part  by  cer- 


^  See  on  this  subject  Franck,  Surla  Kahhale;  Maury,  Croyances  et  Lt 
iV Antiquite  (1863),  p.  338 ;  and  especially  Beausobre,  Hist,  dxi,  Manicliiisme 
(1734),  torn.  i.  pp.  35-37.  Justyn  Martyr,  TertuUian,  Irenaeus,  Epiphauius, 
and  several  other  Fathers,  notice  the  worship  of  Helena.  According  to  them, 
Simon  proclaimed  that  the  angels  in  heaven  made  war  on  account  of  her 
beauty,  and  that  the  Evil  One  had  made  her  prisoner  to  prevent  her  return  to 
heaven,  from  which  she  had  strayed.  There  is  some  reason  to  think  that  all 
this  was  an  allegory  of  the  soul. 

^  Most  of  the  Gnostics  regarded  the  God  of  the  Jews  or  the  Demiurge  as 
an  imperfect  spirit  presiding  over  an  imperfect  moral  system.  Many,  how- 
ever, regarded  the  Jewish  religion  as  the  work  of  the  principle  of  Evil — the 
god  of  matter  ;  and  the  Cainites  made  everyone  who  had  opposed  it  the  object 
of  reverence,  while  the  Ophites  actually  worshipped  the  serpent.  We  have, 
perhaps,  a  partial  explanation  of  the  reverence  many  of  the  Gnostics  had  for 
the  serpent  in  the  fact  that  this  animal,  which  in  Christianity  represents  the 
principle  of  Evil,  had  a  very  different  position  in  ancient  symbolism.  It  was 
the  general  emblem  of  healing  (because  it  changes  its  skin),  and  as  such  ap- 
pears in  the  statues  of  yEsculapius  and  Isis,  and  it  was  also  constantly  adopted 
as  a  representative  animal.  Thus  in  the  Jlithraic  groups,  that  are  so  common 
in  later  Roman  sculpture,  the  serpent  and  the  dog  represent  all  living  creatm^ea 
A  serpent  wiili  a  hawk's  licad  was  an  old  Egyptian  symbol  of  a  good  genius. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   KATIONALIS:.r.  221 

tain  ^oiis  or  emanations,  of  whom  the  two  principal  were 
Clirist,  and  a  female  spirit  termed  the  Divine  Sophia  or  En- 
noia,  and  sometimes  known  by  the  strange  name  of  '  Prou- 
nicc.'  *  According  to  some  sects  this  Sophia  was  simply  the 
human  soul,  which  was  originally  an  emanation  or  child  of 
the  Deity,  but  which  had  wandered  from  its  parent-source, 
bad  become  enamoured  of  and  at  last  imprisoned  by  matter, 
and  was  now  struggling,  by  the  assistance  of  the  unfallen 
^on  Christ,  towards  its  j^ristine  purity.  More  commonly, 
however,  she  was  deemed  a  personification  of  a  Divine  attri- 
bute, an  individual  ^on,  the  sister  or  (according  to  others) 
the  mother  of  Christ,  and  entitled  to  equal  or  almost  equal 
reverence. 

In  this  way,  long  before  Catholic  Mariolatry  had  acquir- 
ed its  full  proportions,  a  very  large  section  of  the  Christian 
world  had  been  accustomed  to  concentrate  much  attention 
upon  a  female  ideal  as  one  of  the  tAvo  central  figures  of  de- 
votion. This  fact  alone  would  in  some  degree  prepare  the 
way  for  the  subsequent  elevation  of  the  Virgin;  and  it 
should  be  added  that  Gnosticism  exercised  a  very  great  and 
special  influence  over  the  modes  of  thought  of  the  orthodox. 
As  its  most  learned  historian  has  forcibly  contended,  it  should 

^  Prounice  properly  signifies  lasciviousness.  It  seems  to  have  been  ap- 
plied to  the  Sophia  considered  in  her  fallen  condition,  as  imprisoned  in  matter  ; 
but  there  is  an  extreme  obscurity,  which  has  I  think  never  been  cleared  up 
hanging  over  the  subject.  Prounice  seems  to  have  been  confounded  with 
Beronice,  the  name  which  a  very  early  Christian  tradition  gave  to  the  woman 
who  had  been  healed  of  an  issue  of  blood.  This  woman  formed  one  of  the 
principal  types  among  the  Gnostics.  According  to  the  Yalentinians,  the 
twelve  years  of  her  affliction  represented  the  twelve  yEons,  while  the  flowing 
blood  was  the  force  of  the  Sophia  passing  to  the  inferior  world.  See  on  this 
subject,  Maury,  Croyances  et  Legcndcs^  art.  Veronica ;  and  on  the  Sophia 
generally.  Matter,  Hist,  da  Gnosticiame^  tom.  i,  pp.  275-278.  M.  Franck  says 
{La  Kabbalc,  p,  43)  that  some  of  the  Gnostics  painted  the  Holy  Ghost  as  a 
woman,  but  ihis  I  suppose  only  refers  to  the  Sophia. 


222  RATIONALISM   I2T    EUROPE. 

not  be  regarded  as  a  Christian  heresy,  but  ratlier  as  an  inde- 
pendent system  of  eclectic  philosophy  in  which  Christian 
ideas  occupied  a  prominent  place.  Nearly  all  heresies  liave 
aroused  among  the  orthodox  a  spirit  of  repulsion  which  has 
produced  views  the  extreme  opposite  of  those  of  the  heretic. 
Gnosticism,  on  the  other  liand,  exercised  an  absorbing  and 
attracting  influence  of  the  strongest  kind.  That  Neo-Pla- 
tonic  philosophy  which  so  deeply  tinctured  early  theology 
passed,  for  the  most  part,  through  a  Gnostic  medium.  Xo 
yect,  too,  appears  to  have  estimated  more  highly  or  employ- 
ed more  skilfully  aesthetic  aids.  The  sweet  songs  of  Barde- 
sanes  and  Harmonius  carried  their  distinctive  doctrines  into 
the  very  heart  of  Syrian  orthodoxy,  and  cast  such  a  spell 
over  the  minds  of  the  people  that,  in  spite  of  all  prohibitions, 
they  continued  to  be  sung  in  the  Syrian  churches  till  the 
Catholic  poet  St.  Ephrem  wedded  orthodox  verses  to  the 
Gnostic  metres.^  The  apocryphal  gospels,  which  were  for 
the  most  part  of  Gnostic  origin,  long  continued  to  furnish 
subjects  for  painters  in  orthodox  churches.^  There  is  even 
much  reason  to  believe  that  the  conventional  cast  of  features 
ascribed  to  Christ,  which  for  so  many  centuries  formed  the 
i*eal  object  of  the  worship  of  Christendom,  is  derived  from  the 
Gnostic  artists."      Besides  this,  Gnosticism  formed  the  high- 

'  Matter,  Hist,  du  Gnosticisme^  torn.  i.  pp.  360-362. 

^  Didron,  pp.  197,  198.  The  apocryphal  gospel,  however,  which  exercised 
most  influence  over  art,  was  probably  that  of  Nicodemus,  which  is  apparently 
of  orthodox  origin,  and  was  probably  written  (or  at  least  tlie  second  part  of 
it)  against  the  Apollinarians.  AVe  owe  to  it  the  pictures  of  the  Descent  into 
Limbo  that  are  so  common  in  early  Byzantine  art.  The  same  subject,  derived 
from  the  same  source,  was  also  prominent  in  the  medianal  sacred  plajs 
(Malone,  History  of  the  English  Stage,  p.  19). 

^  For  a  full  discussion  of  this  point,  see  Raoul-Rochette's  Ti/pcs  dc  l\Art, 
pp.  9-26,  and  his  Tableau  dcs  Catacombes,  p.  265.  The  opinion  that  the  type 
of  Christ  is  derived  from  the  Gnostics  (which  Raoul-Kochette  says  has  beeii 


DEYEL0PMEXT3    OF    RATIONALIS:\r.  223 

est  representation  of  a  process  of  transformation  or  unifica- 
tion of  religious  ideas  Avliich  occupied  a  very  prominent  place 
among  the  organising  influences  of  the  Church.  Christianity- 
had  become  the  central  intellectual  power  in  the  world,  but 
it  triumphed  not  so  much  by  superseding  rival  faiths  as  by 
absorbing  and  transforming  them.  Old  systems,  old  rites, 
old  images  were  grafted  into  the  new  belief,  retaining  much 
of  their  ancient  character  but  assuming  new  names  and  a  new 
complexio».  Thus  in  the  symbolism  of  the  Gnostics  innu- 
merable conceptions  culled  from  the  diiferent  beliefs  of  pa- 
ganism were  clustered  around  the  Divine  Sophia,  and  at  least 
some  of  them  passed  through  paintings  or  traditional  allego- 
ries to  the  Virgin.  The  old  Egyptian  conception  of  Night, 
the  mother  of  day  and  of  all  things,  with  the  diadem  of  stars, 
Isis,  the  sister  of  Osiris  or  the  Saviour;  Latona,  the  mother  of 
x\pollo;  Flora,  the  bright  goddess  of  returning  spring,  to 
whom  was  once  dedicated  the  month  of  May,  which  is  now 

embraced  by  most  of  tlie  Roman  antiquarians)  rests  chiefly  on  the  following 
positions  : — 1.  That  in  the  earliest  stage  of  Christianity  all  painting  and  sculp- 
ture was  looked  upon  with  great  aversion  in  the  Church,  and  that  as  late  as 
the  ti:ne  of  Constautine  portraits  of  Christ  were  very  rare.  2.  That  the  Gnos- 
tics from  the  beginning  cultivated  art,  and  that  small  images  of  Christ  were 
among  the  most  common  objects  of  their  reverence.  3.  That  the  Gnostics 
were  very  numerous  at  Rome.  4,  That  Gnosticism  exercised  a  great  influence 
upon  the  Church,  and  especially  upon  her  {esthetic  development.  It  may  be 
added  that  the  Christians  carefully  abstained  from  deriving  from  paganism  the 
cast  of  features  they  ascribed  to  Christ ;  and  Theodoret  relates  {Hist.^  lib.  i. 
cap.  15)  that  a  painter  having  taken  Jupiter  as  a  model  in  a  portrait  of  Christ, 
his  hand  was  withered,  but  was  restored  miraculously  by  St.  Gennadius,  Arch- 
bishop of  Constantinople.  At  a  later  period  pagan  statues  were  frequently 
turned  into  saints.  St.  Augustine  mentions  that  in  his  time  there  was  no 
authentic  portrait  of  Christ,  and  that  the  type  of  features  was  still  undeter- 
mined, so  that  we  have  absolutely  no  knowledge  of  His  appearance.  '  Qua 
fuerit  ille  (Christus)  facie  nos  penitus  ignoramus.  .  .  .  Nam  ct  ipsiua 
Dominicae  facies  carnis  innumerabilium  cogitationum  diversitate  variatur  et 
fingitur,  qujE  tamen  una  erat,  quaecumque  crat.'  (De  Trinitate^  lib.  viii.  c.  4, 
5.)     The  type,  however,  was  soon  after  formed. 


224  EATIOXALISM   IN    EUEOPE. 

dedicated  to  the  Virgin  ;  Cjbele,  the  motlier  of  the  gods, 
whose  feast  was  celebrated  on  what  is  now  Lady-day,  Avero 
all  more  or  less  connected  with  the  new  ideal. ^ 

But  while  Gnosticism  may  be  regarded  as  the  pioneer  or 
precursor  of  Catholic  Mariolatry,  the  direct  causes  are  to  be 
found  within  the  circle  of  the  Church.  If  the  first  two  or 
three  centuries  were  essentially  the  ages  of  moral  apprecia- 
tion, the  fourth  and  fifth  were  essentially  those  of  dogmatic 
definitions,  which  were  especially  applied  to  the  nature  of  the 
divinity  of  Christ,  and  which  naturally  and  indeed  necessa- 
rily tended  to  the  continued  exaltation  of  one  who  was  soon 
regarded  as,  very  literally,  the  Bride  of  God.  During  the 
!N'estorian  controversy  the  discussions  on  the  subject  assumed 
an  almost  physiological  character ; '  and  the  emphasis  with 
which  the  Church  condemned  the  doctrines  of  Xestorius,  who 
was  supposed  to  have  unduly  depreciated  the  dignity  of 
Mary,  impelled  the  orthodox  enthusiasm  in  the  opposite  di- 
rection. The  Council  of  Ephesus,  in  a.d.  431,  defined  the 
manner  in  vrhich  the  Virgin  should  be  rej^resented  by  artists;' 

^  Oil  tlie  relation  of  this  to  Gnosticism,  see  Matter,  Hist,  du  Gnosticlsme, 
torn.  i.  pp.  88,  89-98. 

^  The  strong  desire  natural  to  the  middle  ages  to  give  a  palpable  form  to 
the  mystery  of  the  Incarnation  was  shown  curiously  in  the  notion  of  a  con- 
ception by  the  ear.     In  a  hymn,  ascribed  to  St.  Thomas  i\  Becket,  occur  the 

lines — 

'  Gaude  Virgo,  mater  Christi, 

Quae  per  aurera  concepisti, 

Gabriele  nuntio.' 
And  in  an  old  glass  window,  now  I  believe  in  one  of  the  museums  of  Paris,  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  represented  hovering  over  the  Virgin  in  the  form  of  a  dove, 
while  a  ray  of  light  passes  from  his  beak  to  her  ear,  along  which  ray  an  infant 
Christ  is  descending. — Langlois,  Pcinture  sur  Verre,  p.  157. 

^  St.  Augustine  notices  (De  lYinltate)  that  in  his  time  there  was  no  authen- 
tic portrait  of  Mary.  The  Council  of  Ephesus  wished  her  to  be  pabited  with 
the  Infant  Child,  and  this  was  the  general  representation  iu  tlie  early  Cliurch. 
Some  of  the  Byzantine  pictin-os  are  ?s\\\   to  have   been  influenced  by  the 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   RATION ALISil.  225 

and  the  ever-increasing  importance  of  painting  and  sculpture 
as  the  oi'gans  of  religious  realisations  brought  into  clearer 
and  more  vivid  relief  the  charms  of  a  female  ideal,  which  ac- 
quired an  irresistible  fascination  in  the  monastic  life  of  celi- 
bacy and  solitary  meditation,  and  in  the  strange  mixture  of 
gallantry  and  devotion  that  accompanied  the  Crusades.  It 
was  in  this  last  period  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Immaculate 
Conception  is  said  first  to  have  appeared/  The  lily,  as  the 
symbol  of  purity,  was  soon  associated  Avith  pictures  of  tlie 
Virgin ;  and  a  notion  having  grown  up  that  women  by  eating 
it  became  pregnant  without  the  touch  of  man,  a  vase  wreathed 
with  lilies  became  the  emblem  of  her  maternity. 

The  world  is  governed  by  its  ideals,  and  seldom  or  never 
has  there  been  one  which  has  exercised  a  more  profound  and, 
on  the  whole,  a  more  salutary  influence  than  the  mediaeval 
conception  of  the  Virgin.  For  the  first  time  woman  was 
elevated  to  her  rightful  position,  and  the  sanctity  of  weak- 
ness was  recognised  as  well  as  the  sanctity  of  sorrow.  No 
longer  the  slave  or  toy  of  man,  no  longer  associated  only  with 

favourite  Egyptian  representations  of  Isis  giving  suck  to  Horus.  It  has  been 
observed  that  in  the  case  of  Mary,  as  in  the  case  of  Christ,  suffering  and  deep 
melancholy  became  more  and  more  the  prevailing  expression  as  the  dark  ages 
rolled  on,  which  was  still  further  increased  by  the  black  tint  the  mediaeval 
artists  frequently  gave  her,  in  allusion  to  the  description  in  the  Song  of  Sol- 
omon. The  first  notice  in  writing  of  the  resemblance  of  Christ  to  His  mother 
is,  I  beheve,  in  Nicephorus. — See  Raoul-Rochettc,  Types  de  VArt  Chretien, 
pp.  30-39 ;  Pascal,  Institniions  de  VAi't  Chretien. 

^  Heeren,  Influences  des  Croisadcs,  pp.  204,  205.  However,  St.  Augustine 
says : — '  Excepta  itaquc  Sancta  Virginc  Maria,  de  qua,  propter  honorem  Domini, 
iiullam  prorsus  cum  de  peccatis  agitur  habere  volo  quaistionem :  Unde  cnim 
scimus,  quid  ci  plus  gratia}  collatura  fucrit  ad  vincendum  omni  ex  parte  pecca- 
tum,  cjusQ  concipere  ac  parere  meruit  eura  quem  constat  nullum  habuisse  pecca- 
tura.'  {De  NaturA  et  Gratid.)  Gibbon  notices  that  the  notion  acquired  con- 
sistency among  the  Mahometans  some  centuries  before  it  was  adopted  by  the 
Christians.  St.  Bernard  rejected  it  as  a  noveltv.  {Decline  and  Fidl,  cb.  1. 
note.) 

VOL.  I. — 13 


226  RATIONALISM   IN   ECKOPE. 

ideas  of  degradation  and  of  sensuality,  woman  rose,  in  the 
person  of  the  Virgin  Motlier,  into  a  new  sphere,  and  became 
the  object  of  a  reverential  homage  of  wliich  antiquity  liad  had 
no  conception.  Love  was  idealised.  The  moral  charm  and 
beauty  of  female  excellence  was  for  the  lirst  time  felt.  A 
new  type  of  character  was  called  into  being;  a  new  kind  of 
admiration  was  fostered.  Into  a  harsh  and  ignorant  and  be- 
nighted age  this  ideal  type  infused  a  conception  of  gentleness 
and  of  purity  unknown  to  the  2:)roudest  civilisations  of  the 
23ast.  In  the  pages  of  living  tenderness  which  many  a  monk- 
ish writer  has  left  in  honour  of  his  celestial  patron ;  in  the 
millions  who,  in  many  lands  and  in  many  ages,  have  sought 
with  no  barren  desire  to  mould  their  characters  into  her 
image ;  in  those  holy  maidens  who,  for  the  love  of  Mary,  have 
separated  themselves  from  all  the  glories  and  pleasures  of 
the  world,  to  seek  in  fastings  and  vigils  and  humble  charity 
to  render  themselves  worthy  of  her  benediction ;  in  the  new 
sense  of  honour,  in  the  chivalrous  respect,  in  the  softening  of 
manners,  in  the  refinement  of  tastes  displayed  in  all  the  walks 
of  society ;  in  these  and  in  many  other  ways  we  detect  its 
influence.  All  that  was  best  in  Europe  clustered  around  it, 
and  it  is  the  origin  of  many  of  the  purest  elements  of  our 
civilisation. 

But  the  23 rice,  and  23erhaps  the  necessary  price,  of  this  was 
the  exaltation  of  the  Virgin  as  an  omni23resent  deity  of  infi- 
nite 230wer  as  well  as  infinite  condescension.  The  legends 
represented  her  as  performing  every  kind  of  prodigy,  saving 
men  from  the  lowest  abysses  of  wretchedness  or  of  vice,  and 
proving  at  all  times  the  most  250werful  and  tlie  most  ready 
refuge  of  the  afiiicted.  The  2:>ainters  depicted  her  invested 
witli  the  divine  aureole,  judging  man  on  equal  terms  Avith 
her   Son,   or   oven  retaining   her  asccndancv  over   Him    in 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    RATIOXALISM.  227 

heaven.  In  the  devotions  of  the  people  she  was  addressed 
in  terms  identical  with  those  employed  to  the  Almighty.'  A 
reverence  similar  in  kind  but  less  in  degree  was  soon  be- 
stowed upon  the  other  saints,  who  speedily  assumed  the 
position  of  the  minor  deities  of  paganism,  and  who,  though 
worshij^ped,  like  them,  as  if  ubiquitous,  like  them  had  tlieir 
special  spheres  of  patronage. 

While  Christendom  was  thus  reviving  the  polytheism 
which  its  intellectual  condition  required,  the  tendency  to 
idolatry  that  always  accompanies  that  condition  was  no  less 
forcibly  displayed.  In  theory,  indeed,  images  were  employed 
exclusively  as  aids  to  worship ;  but  in  practice,  and  with  the 
general  assent  of  the  highest  ecclesiastical  authorities,  they 
very  soon  became  the  objects.  When  men  employ  visible 
representations  simply  for  the  purpose  of  giving  an  increased 
vividness  to  their  sense  of  the  presence  of  the  person  who  is 
addressed,  and  when  the  only  distinction  they  make  between 
different  representations  arises  from  the  degree  of  fidelity  or 
force  with  which  they  assist  the  imagination,  these  2:)ersons 
are  certainly  not  committing  idolatry.     But  when  they  pro- 

^  Even  at  the  present  day  the  Psalter  of  St.  Bonaventura — an  edition  of  the 
Psalms  adapted  to  the  worship  of  the  Virgin,  chiefly  by  the  substitution  of  the 
word  domina  for  the  word  domirms — is  a  popular  book  of  devotion  at  Pome. 
In  a  famous  fresco  of  Orcagna  at  Pisa  the  Virgin  is  represented,  with  precisely 
the  same  dignity  as  Christ,  judging  mankind ;  and  everyone  who  is  acquainted 
with  mediaeval  art  has  met  with  similar  examples.  An  old  bishop  named  Gil- 
bert Massius  had  his  own  portrait  painted  between  the  Virgin  giving  suck  to 
Christ  and  a  Crucifixion,  Underneath  were  the  lines — 
'  Hinc  lactor  ab  ubere, 

Ilinc  pascor  a  vulnere, 

Positus  in  medio. 

Quo  me  vertam  nescio, 

In  hoc  dulci  dubio 

Dulcis  est  coUatio.'    ■ 

Pascal,  Art  Chrtticn,  torn.  i.  p.  250. 


228  RATIONALISM   IX   EUROPE. 

ceed  to  attach  the  idea  of  intrinsic  virtue  to  a  particulai 
image,  when  one  image  is  said  to  work  miracles  and  confei 
spiritual  benefits  that  separate  it  from  CA^ery  other,  when  it 
becomes  the  object  of  long  pilgrimages,  and  is  supposed  by 
its  mere  presence  to  defend  a  besieged  city  or  to  ward  ofl 
pestilence  and  famine,  the  difference  between  this  conception 
and  idolatry  is  inappreciable.  Everything  is  done  to  cast 
the  devotion  of  the  worshipper  upon  the  image  itself,  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  every  other,  and  to  attribute  to  it  an  in- 
trinsic efficacy. 

In  this  as  in  the  former  case  the  change  was  effected  by 
a  general  tendency  resulting  from  the  intellectual  condition 
of  society,  assisted  by  the  concurrence  of  special  circum- 
stances. At  a  very  early  period  the  persecuted  Chris- 
tians were  accustomed  to  collect  the  relics  of  the  mar- 
tyrs, Avhich  they  regarded  with  much  affection  and  not 
a  little  reverence,  partly,  perhaps,  from  the  popular  no- 
tion that  the  souls  of  the  dead  lingered  fondly  around 
their  tombs^  and  partly  from  the  very  natural  and  praise- 
worthy feeling  which  attaches  us  to  the  remains  of  the 
good.  A  similar  reverence  w^as  speedily  transferred  to 
pictures,  wdiich  as  memorials  of  the  dead  were  closely  con- 
nected with  relics  ;  and  the  tendency  to  the  miraculous 
that  was  then  so  j^owerful  having  soon  associated  some  of 
them  with  supernatural  occurrences,  this  was  regarded  as  a 


'  Tbus  the  Council  of  Illiberis  in  its  84tli  canon  forbade  men  to  liglit 
candles  by  day  in  the  cemeteries  for  fear  of  "  disquiotiug  the  souls  of  the 
saints."  See,  too,  a  curious  passage  of  Yigilantius  cited  by  St.  Jerome,  Ep. 
lii.  13.  To  be  buried  near  the  tomb  of  a  martyr  was  one  of  the  most  coveted 
privileges  in  the  early  Church.  See  a  very  remarkable  dissertation  of  Lc 
Blaut,  "Inscriptions  Chretiennes  de  Gaule,"  torn,  ii.,  p.  219-229. 


£)EVELOPMENTS    OF   NATIONALISM.  229 

Divine  attestation  of  their  sanctity.  Two  of  these  repre- 
sentations were  esjoecially  prominent  in  the  early  controver- 
sies. The  first  T\'as  a  portrait  which,  according  to  tradition, 
Christ  had  sent  to  Abgarus,  king  of  Edessa,^  and  which,  be- 
sides several  other  miracles,  had  once  destroyed  all  the  he- 
sieging  engines  of  a  Persian  army  that  had  invested  Edessa. 
Still  more  famous  was  a  statue  of  Christ,  said  to  have  been 
erected  in  a  small  town  in  Phoenicia  by  the  woman  who  had 
been  healed  of  an  issue  of  blood.  A  new  kind  of  herb  had 
grown  up  beneath  it,  increased  till  it  touched  the  hem  of  the 
garment  of  the  statue,  and  then  acquired  the  power  of  heal- 
ing all  disease.  This  statue,  it  w^as  added,  had  been  broken 
in  pieces  by  Julian,  who  placed  his  own  image  on  the  pedes- 
tal, from  which  it  was  speedily  hurled  by  a  thunderbolt.^ 

In  the  midst  of  this  bias  the  irruption  and,  soon  after,  the 
conversion  of  the  barbarians  were  effected.  Vast  tribes  of 
savages,  who  had  always  been  idolaters,  who  were  perfectly 
incapable,  from  their  low  state  of  civilisation,  of  forming  any 

^  With  a  letter,  which  is  still  extant,  aud  which  Addison,  in  his  work  on 
Christian  Evidences,  quoted  as  genuine.  Of  course  it  is  now  generally  ad- 
mitted to  be  apocryphal.  This  portrait  was  supposed  to  be  miraculously  im- 
pressed (like  that  obtained  by  St.  Veronica)  on  a  handkerchief.  It  was  for  a 
long  time  at  Constantinople,  but  was  brought  to  Rome  probably  about  a.d. 
1198,  and  deposited  in  the  Church  of  St.  Sylvester  in  Capite,  where  it  now  is. 
Sec  Marangoni,  Istoria  della  Cappclla  di  Sanda  Sanctorum  di  Roma  (Romas, 
1'747),  pp.  235-239  ;  a  book  which,  though  ostensibly  simply  a  history  of  the 
Acheropita,  or  sacred  image  at  the  Lateran,  contains  a  fuller  account  of  the 
history  of  the  early  miraculous  pictures  of  Christ  than  any  other  I  have  met 
with. 

■•^  On  these  representations,  the  miracles  they  wrought,  and  the  great  i.n- 
portance  they  assumed  in  the  Iconoclastic  controversies,  see  Maimbourg 
Histoire  des  Iconoclastcs  (1686),  pp.  44-47 ;  and  on  other  early  miracles  attrib- 
uted to  images,  Spanheim,  Hhtoria  Lnaginum  (1686),  pp.  417-420.  The  first 
of  these  books  is  Catholic,  and  the  second  the  Protestant  reply.  See,  too, 
Marangoni,  Sanda  Sandorum  ;  and  Arringhi,  Roma  Suhterranea^  torn.  ii.  pp. 
452-460. 


230  NATIONALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

but  anthropomorphic  conceptions  of  the  Deity,  or  of  concen 
trating  their  attention  steadily  on  any  invisible  object,  and 
who  for  the  most  part  were  converted  not  by  individual  per- 
suasion but  by  the  commands  of  their  chiefs,  embraced 
Christianity  in  such  multitudes  that  their  habits  of  mind  soon 
became  the  dominating  habits  of  the  Church.  From  this 
time  the  tendency  to  idolatry  was  irresistible.  The  old  im- 
ages were  worshipped  under  new  names,  and  one  of  the  most 
prominent  aspects  of  the  Apostolical  teaching  was  in  prac- 
tice ignored. 

All  this,  however,  did  not  pass  without  protest.  During 
the  period  of  the  persecution,  when  the  dread  of  idolatry 
was  still  powerful,  everything  that  tended  in  that  direction 
was  scrupulously  avoided ;  and  a  few  years  before  the  first 
Council  of  Nice,  a  council  held  at  Illiberis  in  Spain,  in  a 
canon  which  has  been  very  frequently  cited,  condemned  alto- 
gether the  introduction  of  j^ictures  into  the  churches,  '  lest 
that  which  is  worshij^ped  should  be  painted  upon  the  walls.' ' 
The  Greeks,  among  whom  the  last  faint  rays  of  civilisation 
still  flickered,  were  in  this  respect  somewhat  superior  to  the 
Latins,  for  they  usually  discouraged  the  veneration  of  images, 
though  admitting  that  of  pictures.'  Early  in  the  eighth 
century,  when  image-worship  had  become  general,  the  sect 
of  the  Iconoclasts  arose,  whose  long  struggle  against  the  pre- 
vailing evil,  though  stained  with  great  tyranny  and  great 
cruelty,  represents  the  fierce  though  imavailing  attempts  to 
resist  the  anthropomorphism  of  the  age ;  and  when  the 
second  Council  of  Nice,  Avhich  the  Catholics  now  regard  as 

^  *Xe  quod  colitur  et  adoratur  in  parietibus  depingatur.'  The  CathollcsJ 
maintain  that  this  was  a  decree  elicited  by  the  persecution,  and  that  its  object 
was  to  prevent  the  profanation  of  Christian  images  by  the  pagans. 

^  Probably  because  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  pictures  had  ever  been 
cn)ployed  as  idols  by  the  Ancient  Greeks  or  Romans. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    EATIOXALISM.  231 

oecumenical,  censured  this  heresy  and  carried  the  veneration 
of  images  considerably  further  than  had  before  been  author- 
ised, its  authority  was  denied  and  its  decrees  contemptuously 
stigmatised  by  Charlemagne  and  the  Galilean  Church.'  Two 
or  three  illustrious  Frenchmen  also  made  isolated  eiforts  iu 
the  same  direction.^ 

Of  these  efforts  there  is  one  upon  which  I  may  delay  for 
a  moment,  because  it  is  at  once  extremely  remarkable  and 
extremely  little  known,  and  also  because  it  brings  us  in  con- 
tact with  one  of  the  most  rationalistic  intellects  of  the  mid- 
dle ages.  In  describing  the  persecution  that  was  endured 
by  the  Cabalists  in  the  ninth  century,  I  had  occasion  to  ob- 
serve that  they  found  a  distinguished  defender  in  the  j)erson 
of  an  archbishop  of  Lyons,  named  St.  Agobard.  The  very 
name  of  this  prelate  has  now  sunk  into  general  oblivion,'  or 
if  it  is  at  all  remembered,  it  is  only  in  connection  with  the 
most  discreditable  act  of  his  life — the  part  which  he  took  in 
the  deposition  of  Louis  le  Dcbonnaire.  Yet  I  question  whether 
in  the  whole  comj^ass  of  the  middle  ages — with,  perhaps, 
the  single  exception  of  Scotus  Erigena — it  would  be  possible 
to  find  another  man  within  the  Christian  Church  who  api^lied 
himself  so  zealously,  so  constantly,  and  so  ably  to  dispelling 
the  superstitions  that  surrounded  him.  To  those  who  have 
appreciated  the  character  of  the  ninth  century,  but  few 
words  will  be  required  to  show  the  intellectual  eminence  of 

^  On  the  discussions  connected  'n-ith  this  Council,  see  Xatalis  Alexander, 
Hlstoria  Eccl.  Scccidl  viii. 

^  The  most  celebrated  being  Ilincmar,  Archbishop  of  Rheims.  Baronius 
inveighed  violently  against  this  prelate  for  terming  the  sacred  images  'dolls,' 
but  Maimbourg  contends  (introduction  to  the  Hist,  dcs  Iconocl.)  that  the  ex- 
pression is  not  to  be  found  in  any  of  the  works  of  Hincmar. 

^  There  is  an  edition  of  his  works  in  one  volume  (Paris,  1G05),  and  anothcj 
m  two  volumes  (Paris,  IGIG),     I  have  quoted  from  the  former. 


232  RATIOXALISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

an  ecclesiastic  who,  in  that  century,  devoted  one  work  to  dis- 
playing the  folly  of  those  who  attributed  hail  and  thundei 
to  spiritual  agencies,  a  second  to  in  at  least  some  degree  at- 
tenuating the  popular  notions  concerning  epilepsy  and  other 
strange  diseases,  a  third  to  exposing  the  absurdities  of  or 
deals,  and  a  fourth  to  denouncing  the  idolatry  of  image  woi 
ship. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  last  work  Agobard  collected  a 
long  series  of  passages  from  the  fathers  and  early  councils 
on  the  legitimate  use  of  images.  As  long  as  they  were  em- 
ployed simply  as  memorials,  they  were  unobjectionable.  But 
the  popular  devotion  had  long  since  transgressed  this  limit. 
Idolatry  and  anthropomorphism  had  everywhere  revived, 
and  devotion  being  concentrated  on  visible  representations, 
all  faith  in  the  invisible  w^as  declining.  Men,  with  a  sacrile- 
gious folly,  ventured  to  apply  the  epithet  holy  to  certain  im- 
ages,^ offering  to  the  work  of  their  own  hands  the  honour 
which  should  be  reserved  for  the  Deity,  and  attributing  sanc- 
tity to  w^hat  w^as  destitute  even  of  life.  'Kor  Avas  it  any  jus- 
tification of  this  practice  that  the  worshijDpers  sometimes  dis- 
claimed the  belief  that  a  divine  sanctity  resided  in  the  image 
itself,^  and  asserted  that  they  reverenced  in  it  only  the  person 
wdio  was  represented  ;  for  if  the  image  was  not  divine,  it 
should  not  be  venerated.     This  excuse  was  only  one   of  the 


^  '  Multo  autcm  his  deteriora  esse  quce  iiumana  et  carualis  pra?sumptio 
fingit  etiam  stulti  consentiunt.  In  quo  genere  istae  quoque  inveniimtur  quas 
sauctas  appellant  imagines,  non  solum  sacrilegi  ex  eo  quod  divinum  cultum 
opcribus  manuum  suarum  cxliibent,  sed  et  insipientes  sanctitatcm  cis  quaj  sine 
anima  sunt  imaginibus  tribucndo.' — p.  233. 

^  '  Dicit  forsitan  aliquis  non  se  pulare  imagini  quam  adorat  aliquid  inesse 
Divinum,  sed  tantummodo  pro  honore  ejus  cujus  effigies  est,  tali  cam  venera- 
tioue  donare.  Cui  facile  respondctur,  quia  si  imago  quam  adorat  Dcus  non  est 
uequaquam  veneranda  est,' — p,  237.  , 


DEYELOPMEXTS    OF    EATIONALTSM.  233 

devices  of  Satan,^  who  was  ever  seeking  under  the  pretext 
of  honour  to  the  saints  to  draw  men  back  to  the  idols  they 
liad  left.  Xo  image  could  be  entitled  to  the  reverence  of 
those  who,  as  the  temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  were  superior 
to  every  image,  who  were  themselves  the  true  images  of  the 
Deity.  A  picture  is  helpless  and  inanimate.  It  can  confer 
no  benefit  and  inflict  no  evil.  Its  only  value  is  as  a  repre- 
sentation of  that  which  is  least  in  man — of  his  body,  and  not 
his  mind.  Its  only  use  is  as  a  memorial  to  keep  alive  the  af- 
fection for  the  dead ;  if  it  is  regarded  as  anything  more,  it 
becomes  an  idol,  and  as  such  should  be  destroyed.  Very 
rightly  then  did  Hezekiah  grind  to  powder  the  brazen  ser- 
pent in  spite  of  its  sacred  associations,  because  it  had  become 
an  object  of  worship.  Very  rightly  too  did  the  Council  of 
Illiberis  and  the  Christians  of  Alexandria ""  forbid  the  intro- 
duction of  representations  into  the  churches,  for  they  foresaw 
that  such  representations  would  at  last  become  the  objects  of 
vrorship,  and  that  a  change  of  faith  would  only  be  a  change 
of  idols ;  nor  could  the  saints  themselves  be  more  duly 
honoured  than  by  destroying  ignominiously  their  portraits, 
when  those  portraits  had  become  the  objects  of  superstitious 


^  '  Agit  hoc  nimirura  versuius  et  callidus  humani  generis  inimicus,  ut,  sub 
prretextu  honoris  sanctorum,  rursus  idola  introducat,  rursus  per  diversas  effigies 
adoretur.' — p.  252, 

^  Speaking  of  the  conduct  of  some  Alexandrian  Christians,  who  only  ad- 
mitted the  sign  of  the  cross  into  their  churches,  he  says : — '  0  quam  sincera 
religio  !  crucis  vexillum  ubique  pingebatur  non  aliqua  vultus  humani  similltudo. 
(Deo  scilicet  hasc  mirabiliter  etiam  ipsis  forsitan  nescientibus  dispouentc)  si 
enim  sanctorum  imagines  hi  qui  daemonum  cultum  reliquerant  vencrari  jubcren- 
tur,  puto  quod  vidcrctur  cis  non  tam  idola  reliquisse  quam  simulacra  mutasse.' 
—p.  23Y. 

'  '  Quia  si  serpentem  aneum  qucm  Dcus  fieri  prsecepit,  quoniam  errans 
populus  tanquam  idolum  colere  coepit,  Ezechias  religiosus  rex,  cum  magna 
l)ietatis  laude  contrivit:    muUo  religiosius  sanctorum  imagines  (ipsis  quoque 


234  katioxalism   in   eueope. 

It  will  I  think  be  admitted  that  these  sentiments  are  ex 
ceedingly  remarkable  when  we  consider  the  age  in  which 
they  were  expressed,  and  the  j)Osition  of  the  person  who  ex- 
pressed them.  No  Protestant  fresli  from  the  shrines  of  Lo- 
retto  or  Saragossa  ever  denounced  the  jdolatry  practised 
under  the  shadow  of  Catholicism  Avith  a  keener  or  more 
incisive  eloquence  than  did  this  media3val  saint.  But  although 
it  is  extremely  interesting  to  detect  the  isolated  efforts  of 
illustrious  individuals  to  rise  above  the  general  conditions  of 
their  age,  such  efforts  have  usually  but  little  result.  Idolatry 
was  so  intimately  connected  with  the  modes  of  thought  of 
the  middle  ages,  it  was  so  congruous  with  the  prevailing- 
conception  of  the  government  of  the  universe,  and  with  the 
materialising  habits  that  were  displayed  upon  all  subjects,  that 
no  process  of  direct  reasoning  could  overthrow  it,  and  it  was 
only  by  a  fundamental  change  in  the  intellectual  condition 
of  society  that  it  was  at  last  subverted. 

It  must,  however,  be  acknowledged  that  there  is  one  ex- 
ample of  a  great  religion,  reigning  for  the  most  part  over 
men  who  had  not  yet  emerged  from  the  twilight  of  an  early 
civilisation,  which  has  nevertheless  succeeded  in  restraining 
its  votaries  from  idolatry.  This  phenomenon,  vrliich  is  the 
preeminent  glory  of  Mahometanism,  and  the  most  remarkable 
evidence  of  the  genius  of  its  founder,  appears  so  much  at  vari- 
ance Avith  the  general  laws  of  historic  development,  that  it  may 

Sanctis  faventibus,  qui  ob  sui  honorem  cum  divinte  religionis  coiitemptu  eas 
ndorari  more  idolorum  indignantissime  ferunt)  omni  genere  conterendw  et 
usque  ad  pulverem  sunt  eradendiE ;  pra^sertim  cum  non  illas  fieri  Deus  jusserit, 
sed  humanus  sensus  excogitaverit.'— p.  244.  '  Ncc  itcrum  ad  sua  latibula 
fraudulenta  recurrat  astutia,  ut  dicat  se  nou  imagiucs  sanctorum  adorare  sed 
sanctos;  clamat  enim  Dcus,  "  Glorlam  meam  alteri  non  dabo,  nee  laudem 
meam  sculptilibus."  '—pp.  254,  255.  See  too  tlie  noble  concluding  passage  on 
the  exclusive  worship  of  Christ,  breathing  a  spirit  of  the  purest  Protestantism. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    liATIOXALISM.  235 

be  well  to  examine  for  a  moment  its  causes.  In  the  first 
place,  then,  it  must  be  observed  that  the  enthusiasm  by  which 
Mahometanism  conquered  the  world,  was  mainly  a  military 
enthusiasm.  Men  were  draAvn  to  it  at  once,  and  without 
conditions,  by  the  splendour  of  the  achievements  of  its  dis- 
ciples, and  it  declared  an  absolute  war  against  all  the  re- 
ligions it  encountered.  Its  history  therefore  exhibits  nothing 
of  the  process  of  gradual  absorption,  persuasion,  compromise, 
and  assimilation,  that  Avas  exhibited  in  the  dealings  of  Chris- 
tianity with  the  barbarians.  In  the  next  place,  one  of  the 
great  characteristics  of  the  Koran  is  the  extreme  care  and 
skill  with  which  it  labours  to  assist  men  in  realising  the  un- 
seen. Descriptions  the  most  minutely  detailed,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  most  vivid,  are  mingled  with  powerful  appeals 
to  those  sensual  passions  by  which  the  imagination  in  all 
countries,  but  esj^ecially  in  those  in  which  Mahometanism  has 
taken  root,  is  most  forcibly  influenced.  In  no  other  religion 
that  prohibits  idols  was  the  strain  upon  the  imagination  so 
slight.' 

In  the  last  place,  the  prohibition  of  idols  was  extended 
to  every  representation  of  man  and  animals,  no  matter  how 
completely  unconnected  they  might  be  with  religion.'     Ma- 

^  Some  curious  instances  of  the  way  in  whicli  the  early  fanaticism  of 
Mahometanism  was  thus  sustained,  have  been  collected  by  Hclvetius,  Dq 
V Esprit.  It  is  quite  true,  as  Sale  contends,  that  Mahomet  did  not  introduce 
polygamy,  and  therefore  that  the  fact  of  his  permitting  it  could  not  have  been 
one  of  the  motives  urging  Asiatics  to  embrace  the  new  religion ;  but  it  is  also 
true  that  Mahoniet  and  his  disciples,  more  skilfully  than  any  other  religionists, 
blended  sensual  passions  with  religion,  associated  them  with  future  rewards, 
and  converted  them  into  stimulants  of  devotion. 

^  Some  of  the  early  Christians  appear  to  have  wished  to  adopt  this  course, 
which  would  have  been  the  only  effectual  means  of  repressing  idolatry.  In  an 
apocryphal  work,  called  The  Voyar/es  of  St.  John^  which  was  circulated  in 
the  Church,  there  was  a  legend  that  St.  John  once  found  his  own  portrait  in 
the  house  of  a  Christian,  that  he  thought  at  first  it  was  an  idol,  and,  even 


236  RATIONALISM   IN    EUEOPE. 

hoiuet  pcrcei^'ed  very  clearly,  that  in  order  to  j^i'^vent  Lis 
disciples  from  worshipping  images,  it  was  absolutely  necessa- 
ry to  prevent  them  from  making  any ;  and  he  did  this  by 
commands  which  were  at  once  so  stringent  and  so  precise, 
that  it  was  scarcely  possible  to  evade  them.  In  this  way 
he  preserved  his  religion  from  idolatry  ;  but  he  made  it  the 
deadly  enemy  of  art.  How  much  uvt  has  lost  by  the  antag- 
onism it  is  impossible  to  say.  Certainly  the  wonderful  pro- 
ficiency attained  by  the  Spanish  Moors  in  architecture,  which 
was  the  only  form  of  art  that  was  open  to  them,  and  above 
all  the  ornamentation  of  the  Alhambra,  and  the  Alcazar  of 
Seville,  in  which,  while  the  representations  of  animal  life 
are  carefully  excluded,  plants  and  flowers  and  texts  from  the 
Koran  and  geometrical  figures  are  woven  together  in  a  tra- 
cery of  the  most  exquisite  beautj^,^  seem  to  imj^ly  the  posses- 
sion of  aesthetic  powers  that  have  ncA'er  been  surj)assed. 

Mahometanism  sacrificed  art,  but  it  cannot  be  said  that 
Christianity  during  the  middle  ages  was  altogether  favoura- 
ble to  it.  The  very  period  when  representations  of  Christ  or 
the  saints  were  regarded  as  most  sacred,  was  precisely  that 
in  which  there  was  no  art  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word, 
or  at  least  none  applied  to  the  direct  objects  of  worship.     The 

when  told  its  true  character,  severely  blamed  the  painter.  (Beausobre,  Hist 
du  Manichtisme.)  A  passage  in  the  invective  of  Tertullian  against  Her- 
mogenes  has  been  quoted  as  to  the  same  effect :  'Pingit  iUicite,  nubit  assidue, 
legem  Dei  in  libidinem  defendit,  in  artem  contemuit,  bis  falsarius  et  cauterio 
ct  stylo.'  Clemens  Alexandriuus  was  of  opinion  that  ladies  broke  the  second 
commandment  by  using  looking-glasses,  as  they  thereby  made  images  of  thcm- 
Eclves. — Barbeyrac,  Morale  des  Peres,  c.  v.  §  18. 

^  See  on  this  subject  a  striking  passage  from  Owen  Jones,  quoted  hi  Ford's 
Spain,  vol.  i.  p.  304.  It  is  remarkable  that,  while  the  ornamentation  derived 
from  the  vegetable  world  in  the  Alhambra  is  unrivalled  in  beauty,  the  lions 
which  support  one  of  the  fountams,  and  which  form,  I  believe,  the  solitary  in- 
stance .of  a  deviation  from  the  command  of  the  Prophet,  might  rank  with  the 
worst  productions  of  the  time  of  Nicolas  of  Pisa. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   RATIONALISM.  237 

middle  ages  occasionally,  indeed,  produced  churches  of  great 
beauty ;  mosaic  work  for  their  adornment  was  cultivated 
with  considerable  zeal,  and  in  the  fifth  century,  and  again 
after  the  establishment  in  the  eleventh  century  of  a  school  of 
Greek  artists  at  Monte  Cassino,  with  some  slight  success ; ' 
similar  skill  was  shown  in  gold  church  crnaments,'  and  in  thc^ 
illumination  of  manuscripts  ;'  but  the  habitual  veneration  ol 

^  According  to  tradition,  the  earliest  specimen  of  Christian  mosaic  work  is 
a  portrait  of  Christ,  preserved  in  the  church  of  St.  Praxede  of  Rome,  which 
St.  Peter  is  said  to  have  worn  round  his  neck,  and  to  have  given  at  Rome  to 
Pudens,  his  host,  the  father  of  St.  Praxede.  The  finest  specimens  of  the 
mosaics  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  are  at  Ravenna,  especially  in  the  church 
of  St.  Yitale,  which  was  built  by  the  Greeks,  who  were  the  great  masters  of 
this  art.  Ciampini,  Avho  is  the  chief  authority  on  this  subject,  thinks  ( Vetera 
Monitmenta,  pars  i.  (Roma?,  1G90),  p.  84)  that  the  art  was  wholly  forgotten  in 
Rome  for  the  three  hundred  years  preceding  the  establishment  of  the  Monte 
Cassino  school  in  10G6  ;  but  Marangoni  assigns  a  few  wretched  mosaics  to  that 
period  {1st  Sand.  pp.  180-182).  A  descriptive  catalogue  of  those  at  Rome 
has  lately  been*  published  by  Barbet  de  Jouy,  and  a  singularly  interesting  ex- 
amination of  their  history  by  M.  Vitet  {Etudes  sur  VHlstoire  de  VArt,  tom.  i.). 
For  a  general  review  of  the  decline  of  art,  see  the  great  history  of  D'Agiu- 
oourt. 

-  The  art  of  delicate  carving  on  gold  and  silver  was  chiefly  preserved  in 
the  middle  ages  by  the  reverence  of  relics,  for  the  preservation  of  which  the 
most  beautiful  works  were  designed.  Rouen  was  long  famed  for  its  manufac- 
ture of  church  ornaments,  but  these  were  plundered,  and  for  the  most  part 
destroyed,  by  the  Protestants,  when  they  captured  the  city  in  1562.  The 
luxurious  habits  of  the  Italian  states  were  favourable  to  the  goldsmiths,  and 
those  of  Venice  were  very  celebrated.  A  large  proportion  of  them  are  said  to 
have  been  Jews.  Francia,  Vcrocchio,  Perugino,  Donatcllo,  Brunclleschi,  and 
Ghiberti  were  all  originally  goldsmiths.  M.  Didron  has  published  a  manual  of 
this  art.  The  goldsmiths  of  Limoges  had  the  honour  of  producing  a  saint, 
St.  Eloi,  who  became  the  patron  of  the  art.  Carved  ivory  diptychs  were  also 
very  common  through  the  middle  ages,  and  especially  after  the  eighth  century. 

^  Much  curious  information  on  the  history  of  illumination  and  miniature 
[minting  is  given  in  Cibrario,  Economia  Politka  del  Medio  Evo,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
oov- 846.  Peignot  says  that  from  the  fifth  to  the  tenth  century  the  miniatures 
m  manuscripts  exhibited  an  extremely  high  perfection,  both  in  drauing  and  in 
colouring,  and  that  from  the  tenth  to  the  fourteenth  the  drawing  dctoriated, 
but  revived  with  the  revival  of  painting  {Essai  sur  VHistoirc  du  Farchemin, 


238  RATIONALISM  IN   EUROPE. 

images,  pictures,  and  talismans,  was  far  from  giving  a  general 
impulse  to  art.  And  this  fact,  Avhicli  may  at  first  sight  ap- 
pear'perplexing,  was  in  truth  perfectly  natural.  For  the 
aesthetic  sentiment  and  a  devotional  feeling  are  so  entirely 
different,  that  it  is  impossible  for  both  to  be  at  the  same 
moment  predominating  over  the  mind,  and  very  unusual  for 
both  to  be  concentrated  upon  the  same  object.  The  sensa- 
tion produced  by  a  picture  gallery  is  not  that  of  religious 
reverence,  and  the  favourite  idols  have  in  no  religion  been 
those  Avliich  approve  themselves  most  fully  to  the  taste.' 
They  have  rather  been  pictures  that  are  venerable  from  their 
extreme  antiquity,  or  from  the  legends  attached  to  them,  or 
else  representations  of  the  most  coarsely  realistic  cliaracter. 
Painted  wooden  statues  the  size  of  life  have  usually  been  the 
favourite  idols ;  but  these  are  so  opposed  to  the  genius  of  true 
art,  that — with  the  exception  of  Spain,  where  religious  feeling 
has  dominated  over  every  other  consideration,  and  where 
three  sculptors  of  very  great  ability,  named  Juni,  Hernandez, 
and  Montanes,  have  devoted  themselves  to  their  formation — 
they  have  scarcely  ever  exhibited  any  high  artistic  merit, 
and  never  the  very  highest.  The  mere  fact,  therefore,  of 
pictures  or  images  being  destined  for  Avorship,  is  likely  to  be 
rather  prejudicial  than  otherwise  to  art.  Besides  this,  in  an 
idolatrous  period  the  popular  reverence  speedily  attaclies  to 

p.  76).  Glass  painting  and  miniature  painting  were  both  common  long  before 
Ciraabue,  and  probably  exercised  a  great  influence  over  the  early  artists. 

^  See  on  this  subject,  and  generally  on  the  influence  of  mediceval  modes  of 
thought  upon  art,  Kaoul-Rochettc,  Cours  (T Archtologie,  one  of  the  very  best 
books  ever  written  on  art.  (It  has  been  translated  by  Mr.  Westronp.)  The 
history  of  miracles  strikingly  confirms  the  position  in  the  text.  As  Marau- 
goni  says:  'Anzi  ella  e  cosa  dcgnadi  osservazione  che  I'Altissimo  per  ordinario 
opera  molto  piu  prodigi  nelle  immagini  sagre  uelle  quali  non  spicca  1'  eccel- 
lenza  dell'  arte  o  alcana  cosa  superiorc  all'  umana.' — Isloria  della  CapvUa  di 
Sancta  Sanctorum,  p.  '77. 


DEVELOrMENTS    OF    EATIONALISM.  239 

a  j^articular  tyjDe  of  countenance,  and  even  to  particular  gcs 
tures  or  drosses ;  and  all  innovation,  and  therefore  all  im- 
provement, h  resisted. 

These  reasons  apply  to  the  art  of  the  middle  ages  in  com- 
mon with  that  of  all  other  periods  of  virtual  or  avowed  idol- 
atry. There  was,  however,  another  consideration,  acting  in 
the  same  direction,  which  was  peculiar  to  Christianity.  I 
mean  the  low  estimate  of  physical  beauty  that  characterised 
the  monastic  type  of  religion.  Among  the  Greeks  beauty  of 
every  order  ^  was  the  highest  object  of  Avorship.  In  art 
especially  no  subject  was  tolerated  in  which  deformity  of  any 
kind  was  manifested.  Even  suffering  was  habitually  ideal- 
ised. The  traces  of  mental  anguish  upon  the  countenance 
were  exhibited  with  exquisite  skill,  but  they  were  never  per- 
mitted so  to  contort  the  features  as  to  disturb  the  prevailing 
beauty  of  the  whole.""  The  glory  of  the  human  body  was 
the  central  conception  of  art,  and  nakedness  was  associated 

^  Even  animal  beauty.  It  is  one  of  the  most  subtle,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
most  profoundly  just,  criticisms  of  Winckelmann,  that  it  was  the  custom  of 
the  Greeks  to  enhance  the  perfection  of  their  ideal  faces  by  transfushig  into 
them  some  of  the  higher  forms  of  animal  beauty.  This  was  especially  the  case 
with  Jupiter,  the  upper  part  of  whose  countenance  is  manifestly  taken  from 
that  of  a  lion,  while  the  hair  is  almost  always  so  arranged  as  to  increase  the 
resemblance.  There  are  many  busts  of  Jupiter,  which,  if  all  but  the  forehead 
and  hair  were  covered,  would  be  unhesitatingly  pronounced  to  be  images  of 
lions.  Something  of  the  bull  appears  in  like  manner  in  Hercules ;  while  in 
Pan  (though  not  so  much  with  a  view  to  beauty  as  to  harmony)  the  human 
features  always  approach  as  near  as  human  features  can  to  the  characteristics 
of  the  brute.  As  M.  Ilaoul-Rochcttc  has  well  observed,  this  is  one  of  the 
great  distinctive  marks  of  Greek  sculpture.  The  Egyptians  often  joined  the 
liead  of  an  animal  to  the  body  of  a  man  without  making  any  effort  to  soften 
the  incongruity ;  but  beauty  being  the  main  object  of  the  Greeks,  in  all  their 
composite  statues — Pan,  Centaurs,  hermaphrodites — the  two  natures  that  are 
conjoined  are  fused  and  blended  into  one  harmonious  whole. 

*  See  the  Laocobn  of  Lcssing.  It  is  to  this  that  Lessing  ascribes  the 
famous  device  of  Timanthcs  in  his  sacrifice  of  Iphigenia — drawing  the  veil 
over  the  face  of  Agamemnon — which  Pliny  so  poetically  explains. 


240  EATIONALISM   IN"    EUROPE. 

rather  with  dignity  than  with  shame.  The  gods,  it  was  em 
phatically  said,  were  naked.  ^  To  represent  an  emperor 
naked,  was  deemed  the  highest  form  of  flattery,  because  it 
was  to  represent  his  apotheosis.  The  athletic  games  which 
occupied  so  Large  a  place  in  ancient  life,  contributed  greatly 
to  foster  the  admiration  of  physical  strength,  and  to  furnish 
the  most  admirable  models  to  the  sculptors.' 

It  is  easy  to  perceive  how  favourable  such  a  state  of  feel- 
ing must  have  been  to  the  development  of  art,  and  no  less 
easy  to  see  how  contrary  it  was  to  the  spirit  of  a  religion 
which  for  many  centuries  made  the  suppression  of  all  bodily 
passions  the  central  notion  of  sanctity.  In  this  respect  phi- 
losophers, heretics,  and  saints  were  unanimous.  Plotinus, 
one  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  ISTeo-Platonic  philosophers, 
was  so  ashamed  of  the  possession  of  a  body,  that  he  refused 
to  have  his  portrait  taken  on  the  ground  that  it  would  be  to 
perpetuate  his  degradation.  Gnosticism  and  Manicheism, 
which  in  their  various  modifications  obtained  a  deeper  and 
more  permanent  hold  in  the  Church  than  any  other  heretical 
systems,  maintained  as  their  cardinal  tenet  the  essential  evil 
of  matter ;  and  some  of  the  Cathari,  who  Avere  among  the 
latest  Gnostics,  are  said  to  have  even  starved  themselves  to 
death  in  their  efforts  to  subdue  the  propensities  of  the  body.^ 
Of  the  orthodox  saints,  some  made  it  their  especial  boast  that 
for  many  years  they  had  never  seen  their  own  bodies;  others 
mutilated  themselves  in  order  more  completely  to  restrain  tlieir 
passions ;  others  laboured  with  the  same  object  by  scourgings 
and  fastings,  and  horrible  penances.     All  regarded  the  body 


'  '  Dcus  nudus  est.' — Seneca,  Ep.  xxxi, 

'^  Raoiil-Rochctte,  Cours  iVArcheologle,  pp.   269,  270.      See  also  Fortoul, 
ttudes  (V Archiiologic. 

^  Matter,  Hist,  du  Gnostlcismc,  torn.  iii.  p.  2G-1. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   KATIOXALISM.  2J:1 

as  an  unminglcd  evil,  its  j^assion  and  its  beauty  as  the  most 
deadly  of  temptations.  Art,  while  governed  by  such  senti- 
ments, could  not  possibly  arrive  at  perfection ; '  and  the  pas- 
sion for  representations  of  the  Crucifixion,  or  the  deaths  of 
the  martyrs,  or  the  sufferings  of  the  lost,  impelled  it  still 
further  from  the  beautiful. 

It  appears,  then,  that,  in  addition  to  the  generally  low 
intellectual  condition  of  the  middle  ages,  the  special  form  of 
religious  feeling  that  was  then  dominant,  exercised  an  ex- 
ceedingly unfavourable  influence  upon  art.  This  fact  be- 
comes very  important  when  we  examine  the  course  that  was 
taken  by  the  European  mind  after  the  revival  of  learning. 

Idolatry,  as  I  have  said,  is  the  natural  form  of  worship  in 
an  early  stage  of  civilisation ;  and  a  gradual  emancipation 
from  material  conceptions  one  of  the  most  invariable  results 
of  intellectual  progress.  It  appears  therefore  natural,  that 
when  nations  have  attained  a  certain  point,  they  should  dis- 
card their  images.  And  this  is  what  has  usually  occurred. 
Twice,  however,  in  the  history  of  the  human  mind,  a  differ- 
ent course  has  been  adopted..  Twice  the  weakening  of  the 
anthropomorphic  conceptions  has  been  accompanied  by  an 
extraordinary  progress  in  the  images  that  were  their  rej^re- 
sentatives,  and  the  aesthetic  feeling  having  dominated  over 
the  religious  feeling,  superstition  has  faded  into  art. 

^  The  period  in  which  the  ascetic  ideal  of  ugliness  was  most  supreme  in 
art  was  between  the  sixth  and  twelfth  centuries.  Many  of  the  Roman  mosaics 
during  that  period  exhibit  a  hideousness  which  the  inoxpertness  of  the  artists 
was  quite  insufficient  to  account  for,  and  which  was  evidently  imitated  from  the 
emaciation  of  extreme  asceticism. — See  Vitet,  Etudes  sur  VHistoire  de  VArt, 
tom,  i.  pp.  268-2'79.  Concerning  the  art  of  the  middle  ages,  besides  the  works 
that  have  come  down  to  us,  we  have  a  good  deal  of  evidence  in  a  book  by  a 
bishop  of  the  thirteenth  century,  named  Durandus,  called  Rationale  Divinoruin 
Officiorum.  A  great  deal  of  curious  learning  on  mediaeval  art  is  collected  by 
the  Abbe  Pascal  in  his  Institutions  de  VArt  Chretien  ;  but,  above  all,  in  the 
Iconographie  ChrHienne  of  Didron. 
VOL.  I. — 16 


242  RATIONALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

The  first  of  these  movements  occurred  in  ancient  Greecei 
The  information  we  j^ossess  concerning  the  testhetic  history 
of  that  nation  is  so  ample,  that  we  can  trace  very  clearly  the 
successive  phases  of  its  development/  Putting  aside  those 
changes  that  are  interesting  only  in  an  artistic  point  of  view, 
and  confining^  ourselves  to  those  which  reflect  the  chanojes  of 
religious  realisation,  Greek  idolatry  may  he  divided  into  four 
distinct  stages.  The  first  was  a  j^eriod  of  fetishism,  in  which 
shapeless  stones,  which  were  possibly  aerolites,  and  were,  at 
all  events,  said  to  have  fallen  from  heaven,  were  worshipped. 
In  the  second,  painted  wooden  idols  dressed  in  real  clothes 
became  common.'^  After  this,  Daedalus  created  a  higher  art, 
but  one  which  was,  like  the  Egyptian  and  Byzantine  art,  at 
the  same  time  strictly  religious,  and  characterised  by  an  in- 
tense aversion  to  innovation.  Then  came  the  period  in  Avhich 
increasing  intellectual  culture,  and  the  prevalence  of  philo- 
sophical speculations,  began  to  tell  upon  the  nation,  in  which 
the  religious  reverence  was  displaced,  and  Concentrated  rather 
on  the  philosophical  conception  of  the  Deity  than  upon  the 
idols  in  the  temples,  and  in  which  the  keen  sense  of  beauty, 
evoked  by  a  matured  civilisation,  gave  a  new  tone  and  as- 
pect to  all  parts  of  religion.  The  images  were  not  then 
broken,  but  they  were  gradually  regarded  simply  as  the  em- 
bodiments of  the  beautiful.  They  began  to  exhibit  little  or  no 
religious  feeling,  no  spirit  of  reverence  or  self-abasement,  but 

-  See  an  extremely  clever  sketch  of  the  movement  in  Raoul-Rochctte, 
Cours  d^ArcJicologie  ;  and  Winckelmann,  Hist,  of  Art 

'  Accordhig  to  "Winckelmann,  wooden  statues  with  marble  heads,  called 
aKp6?uOoi^  continued  as  late  as  the  time  of  Phidias,  From  the  painted  wooden 
statues  was  derived  the  custom  of  painting  those  in  marble  and  bronze. 
Heyne,  who  has  devoted  a  very  learned  essay  to  Greek  sculpture,  thinks  the 
statues  of  Daedalus  were  in  wood  [Opnscula  Academica,  tom.  v.  p.  339);  but 
this  appears  very  doubtful.  Pausanias  says  he  saw  a  statue  ascribed  to  Daeda- 
ius  which  was  of  stone. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   RATIONALISM.  243 

a  sense  of  harmony  and  gracefulness,  a  conception  of  ideal 
perfection,  whicli  lias  perhaps  never  been  equalled  in  other 
lands.  The  statue  that  had  once  been  the  object  of  earnest 
prayer  was  viewed  with  the  glance  of  the  artist  or  the  critic. 
The  temple  was  still  full  of  gods,  and  those  gods  had  never 
been  so  beautiful  and  so  grand ;  but  they  were  beautiful  only 
through  the  skill  of  the  artist,  and  the  devotion  that  once 
hallowed  them  had  passed  away.  All  was  allegory,  poetry, 
and  imagination.  Sensual  beauty  was  typified  by  naked  Ve- 
nus ;  unconscious  loveliness,  and  untried  or  natural  chastity, 
by  Diana.  Minerva,  with  her  downcast  eyes  and  somewhat 
stern  features,  represented  female  modesty  and  self-control. 
Ceres,  with  her  flowing  robes  and  her  golden  sheaf,  was  the 
type  of  the  genial  summer;  or,  occasionally  with  dishevelled 
hair,  and  a  countenance  still  troubled  with  the  thouglit  of 
Proserpine,  was  the  emblem  of  maternal  love.  Each  cast  of 
beauty,  and,  after  a  brief  period  of  unmingled  grandeur, 
even  each  form  of  sensual  frailty,  was  transported  into  the 
unseen  world.  Bacchus  nurtured  by  a  girl,  and  with  the  soft 
delicate  limbs  of  a  woman,  was  the  type  of  a  disgraceful 
effeminacy.  Apollo  the  god  of  music,  and  Adonis  the  lover 
of  Diana,  represented  that  male  beauty  softened  into  some- 
thing of  female  loveliness  by  the  sense  of  music  or  the  first 
chaste  love  of  youth,  wliich  the  Christian  painters  long  after- 
wards represented  in  St.  Sebastian  or  St.  John.  Hercules  was 
the  chosen  type  of  the  dignity  of  labour.  Sometimes  he 
appears  in  the  midst  of  his  toils  for  man,  with  every  nerve 
strained,  and  all  the  signs  of  intense  exertion  upon  his  counte- 
nance. Sometimes  he  appears  as  a  demigod  in  the  assembly 
of  Olympus,  and  tlien  his  muscles  are  rounded  and  subdued, 
and  his  colossal  frame  softened  and  harmonised  as  the  emblem 
at  once  of  strength  and  of  repose.     In  very  few  instances  do 


244  RATIONALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

we  find  any  conception  which  can  be  regarded  as  purely 
religious,  and  even  those  are  of  a  somewhat  Epicurean  char- 
acter. Thus  Jupiter,  Pluto,  and  Minos  are  represented  with 
the  same  cast  of  countenance,  and  the  difference  is  chiefly  in 
their  exj)ression.  The  countenance  of  Pluto  is  shadowed  by 
the  passions  of  a  demon,  the  brow  of  Minos  is  bent  with  the 
inexorable  sternness  of  a  judge.  Jupiter  alone  presents  an 
aspect  of  unclouded  calm :  no  care  can  darken,  and  no  pas- 
sion ruffle,  the  serenity  of  the  king  of  heaven.^ 

It  was  in  this  manner  that  the  Greek  mythology  passed 
gradually  into  the  realm  of  poetry,  and  that  the  transition 
was  effected  or  facilitated  by  the  visible  representations  that 
were  in  the  first  instance  the  objects  of  worship.  A  some- 
what similar  change  was  effected  in  Christian  art  at  the 
period  of  the  revival  of  learning,  and  as  an  almost  immediate 
result  of  the  substitution  of  Italian  for  Byzantine  art. 

There  are  few  more  striking  contrasts  than  are  comprised 
in  the  history  of  the  influence  of  Grecian  intellect  upon  art. 
At  an  early  period  Greece  had  arrived  at  the  highest  point 
of  aesthetic  perfection  to  which  the  human  intellect  has  yet  at- 
tained. She  bequeathed  to  us  those  forms  of  almost  passion- 
ate beauty  which  have  been  the  wonder  and  the  delight  of 
all  succeeding  ages,  and  which  the  sculptors  of  every  land  have 
recognised  as  the  ideal  of  their  efforts.  At  last,  however,  the 
fountain  of  genius  became  dry.  ^ot  only  creative  power, 
but  even  the  very  perception  and  love  of  the  beautiful,  seemed 
to  have  died  out,  and  for  many  centuries  the  Greek  Church, 
the  Greek  empire,  and  the  Greek  artists  proved  the  most 
formidable  obstacles  to  aesthetic  development.^     It  Avas  from 

^  See  Winckelmann  and  Ottfricd  Miiller. 

"  Tliis  influence  is  well  noticed  by  M.  Rio,  in  a  book  called  Tlie  Poetry 
of  Christian  Art.      An  exception,  however,  should  be  made  in  fiivour   of 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   RATIONALISM.  245 

tins  quarter  that  the  Iconoclasts  issued  forth  to  wage  their 
fierce  warfare  against  Christian  sculpture.  It  Avas  in  the 
Greek  Church  that  was  most  fostered  the  tradition  of  the  de- 
formity of  Christ,  which  was  as  fatal  to  religious  art  as  it  was 
offensive  to  religious  feeling.^     It  was  in  Greece  too  that 

Greek  architects,  to  whom  Italy  owed  its  first  great  ecclesiastical  structure,  the 
church  of  St.  Vitale  at  Ravenna  (which  Charlemagne  copied  at  Aix-la-Chapelle), 
and  at  a  later  period  St.  Mark's  at  Ycnice,  and  several  other  beautiful  edifices. 
The  exile  of  the  Greek  artists  during  the  Iconoclast  persecution,  and  the  com- 
mercial relations  of  Venice,  Pisa,  and  Genoa,  account  for  the  constant  action 
of  Gi-eece  on  Italy  through  the  middle  ages.  I  have  already  noticed  the  skill 
of  the  Byzantine  artists  in  mosaic  work. 

^  Of  which  Justin  Martyr,  Tertullian,  and  Cyril  of  Alexandria  were  the 
principal  advocates.  The  last  declared  that  Christ  had  been  '  the  ugliest  of 
the  sons  of  men.'  This  theory  furnished  Celsus  with  one  of  his  arguments 
against  Christianity.  The  opposite  view  was  taken  by  Jerome,  Ambrose, 
Chrysostom,  and  John  Damascene.  With  a  view  of  supporting  the  latter 
opinion,  there  was  forged  a  singularly  beautiful  letter,  alleged  to  have  been 
written  to  the  Roman  Senate  by  Lentulus,  who  was  proconsul  in  Judaea  before 
Herod,  and  in  which  the  following  passage  occurs :  '  At  this  period  there  ap- 
peared a  man,  who  is  still  living — a  man  endowed  with  wonderful  power — his 
name  is  Jesus  Christ.  Men  say  that  He  is  a  mighty  prophet ;  but  his  disciples 
call  Him  the  Son  of  God.  He  calls  the  dead  to  life,  and  frees  the  sick  from 
every  form  of  disease.  He  is  tall  of  stature,  and  his  aspect  is  sweet  and  full 
of  power,  so  that  they  who  look  upon  Him  may  at  once  love  and  fear  Him. 
The  hair  of  his  head  is  of  the  colour  of  wine  ;  as  far  as  the  ears  it  is  straight 
and  without  glitter,  from  the  ears  to  the  shoulders  it  is  curled  and  glossy,  and 
from  the  shoulders  it  descends  over  the  back,  divided  into  two  parts  after  the 
manner  of  the  Xazarenes.  His  brow  is  pure  and  even ;  his  countenance  with- 
out a  spot,  but  adorned  with  a  gentle  glow ;  his  expression  bland  and  open ; 
his  nose  and  mouth  are  of  perfect  beauty ;  his  beard  is  copious,  forked,  and 
of  the  colour  of  his  hair ;  his  eyes  are  blue  and  very  bright.  In  reproving  and 
threatening  He  is  terrible  ;  in  teaching  and  exhorting,  gentle  and  loving.  The 
grace  and  majesty  of  his  appearance  are  marvellous.  No  one  has  ever  seen 
Iliai  laugh,  but  rather  weeping.  His  carriage  is  erect ;  his  hands  well  formed 
and  straight ;  his  arms  of  passing  beauty.  Weighty  and  grave  in  speech.  He 
is  sparing  of  words.  He  is  the  most  beautiful  of  the  sons  of  men.'  Xearly 
all  archpcologists  have  inferred  from  the  representations  of  the  fourth  century 
^hat  this  description  was  then  in  existence.  Dean  Milman,  however,  argues 
from  the  silence  of  St.  John  Damascene,  and  of  the  disputants  at  the  Second 
Couricil  of  Nice,  that  it  is  of  a  much  later  date.     See  on  this  whole  subject, 


246  EATJOXALISM   IN   EUEOrE. 

arose  that  essentially  vicious,  conventional,  and  unprogressive 
style  of  painting  whicli  was  universal  in  Europe  for  man^ 
centuries,  which  trammelled  even  the  powerful  genius  of 
Cimabue,  and  which  it  was  reserved  for  Giotto  and  Masaccio 
to  overthrow.  This  was  the  uniform  tendency  of  modern 
Greece.  It  was  the  extreme  oi^posite  of  that  which  had 
once  been  dominant,  and  it  is  a  most  remarkable  fact  that 
it  was  at  last  corrected  mainly  by  the  masterpieces  of  Greek 
antiquity.  It  is  now  very  generally  admitted  that  the  proxi- 
mate cause  of  that  ever-increasing  course  of  progress  which 
was  pursued  by  Italian  art  from  Cimabue  to  Raj^hael,  is 
chiefly  to 'be  found  in  the  renewed  study  of  ancient  scul23ture 
begun  by  Xicolas  of  Pisa  towards  the  close  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, and  afterwards  sustained  by  the  discoveries  at  Eome. 

The  Church  of  Rome,  with  the  sagacity  that  has  usually 
characterised  her,  adopted  and  fostered  the  first  efforts  of  re- 
vived art,  and  for  a  time  she  made  it  essentially  Christian.  It 
is  impossible  to  look  upon  the  pictures  of  Giotto  and  his  early 
successors  without  perceiving  that  a  religious  feeling  per- 
vades and  sanctifies  them.  They  exhibit,  indeed,  a  keen  sense 
of  beauty ;  but  this  is  ahvays  subservient  to  the  religious 
idea ;  it  is  always  subdued  and  chastened  and  idealised. 
Nor  does  this  arise  simply  from  the  character  of  the  artists. 
Christian  art  had,  indeed,  in  the  angelic  friar  of  Fiesole,  one 
saint  who  may  be  comj^ared  with  any  in  the  hagiology. 
Tliat  gentle  monk,  who  was  never  known  to  utter  a  word 
of  anger  or  of  bitterness,  who  refused  without  a  pang  the 
rich  mitre  of  Florence,  who  had  been  seen  with  tears  stream- 


Emcric  David,  Ilist.  de  la  Pcinture^  pp.  24-20  ;  and  Didrou,  Iconograpliic, 
ChrHknne,  pp.  251-2V6.  I  may  add,  that  as  late  as  1649  a  curious  book  {De 
Formd  Christi)  was  published  on  this  subject  at  Paris  by  a  Jesuit,  named 
Vavassor.  which  represents  the  controversy  as  still  continuing. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    EATIOXALISM.  2^7 

iiig  from  his  eyes  as  lie  painted  liis  crucified  Lord,  and  v/lio 
never  began  a  j^icture  without  consecrating  it  by  a  prayer, 
Ibrms  one  of  the  most  attractive  pictui-es  in  the  whole  range 
of  ecclesiastical  biography.  The  limpid  purity  of  his  charac- 
t;er  was  reflected  in  his  works,  and  he  transmitted  to  his  dis- 
ciple Gozzoii  something  of  his  spirit,  with  (I  venture  to 
think)  the  full  measure  of  his  genius. 

But  in  this,  as  on  all  other  occasions,  even  the  higher 
forms  of  genius  were  ultimately  regulated  by  the  law  of 
supply  and  demand.  There  was  a  certain  religious  con- 
ception abroad  in  tlie  Avorld.  That  conception  required 
a  visible  representation,  and  the  painter  appeared  to  sup- 
ply the  want.  The  revival  of  learning  had  broken  upon 
Europe.  The  study  of  the  classics  had  given  an  impulse 
to  every  department  of  intellect,  but  it  had  not  yet  so  al- 
tered the  condition  of  society  as  to  shake  the  old  belief. 
The  profound  ignorance  that  reigned  until  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury had  been  indeed  dispelled.  The  grossness  of  taste,  and 
he  incapacity  for  appreciating  true  beauty,  which  accom- 
panied that  ignorance,  had  been  corrected ;  but  the  devel- 
opment of  the  imagination  preceded,  as  it  always  does  pre- 
cede, the  development  of  the  reason.  Men  were  entranced 
with  the  chaste  beauty  of  Greek  literature  before  they  were 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  abstraction,  of  free  criticism,  and 
of  elevated  philosophy,  which  it  breathes.  They  learned  to 
admire  a  pure  style  or  a  graceful  picture  before  they  learned 
to  appreciate  a  refined  creed  or  an  untrammelled  philosophy. 
All  through  Europe,  the  first  effect  of  the  revival  of  learn- 
ing was  to  produce  a  general  efflorescence  of  the  beautiful. 
A  general  discontent  with  the  existing  forms  of  belief  was 

^  The  same  thing  is  related  of  the  Spanish  sculptor  Hernandez,  and  of  the 
Spanish  painter  Juanos. — Ford's  Sjyain,  vol.  ii.  p.  271. 


248  EATIOXALISM   IX    EUROPE. 

not  produced  till  much  later.  A  material,  sensuous,  and  an 
thropomorphic  faith  was  still  adapted  to  the  intellectual  con- 
dition of  the  age,  and  therefore  painting  was  still  the  special 
organ  of  religious  emotions.  All  the  painters  of  that  period 
were  strictly  religious,  that  is  to  say,  they  invariably  subor- 
dinated considerations  of  art  to  considerations  of  religion. 
The  form  of  beauty  they  depicted  was  always  religious  beau- 
ty, and  they  never  hesitated  'to  disfigure  their  works  with 
loathsome  or  painful  images  if  they  could  in  that  manner 
add  to  their  religious  effect. 

To  these  general  considerations  we  should  add  the  im- 
portant influence  of  Dante,  who  may  be  regarded  as  the 
most  faithful  representative  of  that  brief  moment  in  which 
the  renewed  study  of  the  pagan  writings  served  only  to  en- 
noble and  refine,  and  not  yet  to  weaken,  the  conceptions  of 
theology.  No  other  European  poet  realised  so  fully  the 
sacred  character  antiquity  attributed  to  the  bard.  In  the 
great  poems  of  Greece  and  Rome,  human  figures  occuj^ied 
the  foreground ;  and  even  when  supernatural  machinery  was 
introduced,  it  served  only  to  enhance  the  power  or  evoke  the 
moral  grandeur  of  mortals.  Milton,  indeed,  soared  far  be- 
yond the  range  of  earth ;  but  when  he  wrote,  religious  con- 
ceptions no  longer  took  the  form  of  j^alpable  and  material 
imagery,  and  even  the  grandest  representations  of  spiritual 
beings  under  human  aspects  appeared  incongruous  and  unreal. 
But  the  poem  of  Dante  was  the  last  apocalypse.  It  exercised 
a  supreme  ascendency  over  the  imagination  at  a  time  when 
religious  imagery  was  not  so  much  the  adjunct  as  the  essence 
of  belief,  when  the  natural  impulse  of  every  man  was  to  con- 
v^ert  intellectual  conceptions  into  palpable  forms,  and  when 
painting  was  in  the  strictest  sense  the  normal  expression  of 
faith.     Scarcely  any  other  single   influence   contributed   so 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   EATIONALTSM.  2i9 

iimch,  by  purifying  and  feeding  tlic  imagination,  to  give 
Christian  art  a  grandeur  and  a  religious  perfection,  and  at 
the  same  time  a  sombre  and  appalling  aspect.  '  Dipped  in 
tlie  gloom  of  earthquake  and  eclipse,'  the  pencil  of  the  great 
poet  loved  to  accumulate  images  of  terror  and  of  suffering, 
which  speedily  passed  into  the  works  of  the  artists,  enthralled 
and  fascinated  the  imaginations  of  the  people,  and  completed 
a  transformation  that  had  long  been  in  progress.  At  first, 
after  the  period  of  the  Catacombs,  the  painters  expatiated 
ibr  the  most  part  upon  scenes  drawn  from  the  Book  of  lieve- 
lation,  but  usually  selected  in  such  a  manner  as  to  inspire  any 
sentiment  rather  than  terror.  The  lamb,  Avhich,  having  been 
for  some  centuries  the  favourite  symbol  of  Christ,  was  at  last 
condemned  by  a  council  in  707,^  the  mystic  roll  with  its 
seven  seals,  the  ISTew  Jerusalem  with  its  jewelled  battlements, 
or  Bethlehem  transfigured  in  its  image,  constantly  recurred. 
But  many  circumstances,  of  which  the  panic  produced  by  the 
belief  that  the  world  must  end  with  the  tenth  century,  and 
the  increased  influence  of  asceticism  arising  from  the  permis- 
sion accorded'to  the  monks  of  establishing  their  communities 
in  the  cities,''  were  probably  the  chief,  contributed  to  effect  a 

'  Or,  according  to  others,  692.  The  object  of  this  council  (which  was  held 
at  Constantinople,  and  is  known  under  the  title  '  In  Trullo ')  was  to  repress  the 
love  of  allegory  that  w^as  general ;  and  a  very  learned  historian  of  art  thinks 
that  it  first  produced  pictures  of  the  Crucifixion.  (Emeric  David,  Hkt.  de  la 
Peinturc^  pp.  59-61.)  Its  decree  was  afterwards  either  withdrawn  or  neglected, 
for  lambs  soon  reappeared,  though  they  never  regained  their  former  ascend- 
ency in  art.  As  far  as  I  remember,  there  is  no  instance  of  them  in  the  Cata- 
combs ;  but  after  Constantino  they  for  nearly  three  centuries  had  superseded 
every  other  symbol.  (Rio,  Art  Chretien^  Introd.  p.  49.)  Ciampini  says  that 
the  council  which  condemned  them  was  a  pseudo-council — not  sanctioned  by 
the  Pope.  {Vetera  3Tonumcnta,  pars  i.  p.  28.  See,  too,  Marangoni,  Istoria 
delta  Cappella  di  Sancta  Sandonim,  p.  159.) 

^  At  first  they  were  strictly  forbidden  to  remain  in  the  towns.  Even  the 
priest-ridden  Theodosius  made  a  law  commanding  all  who  had  embraced  the 


2o0  EATIOXALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

l^rofouDd  change.  The  churches  in  their  ornaments,  in  their 
general  aspect,  and  ev^en  in  their  forras,^  became  tlie  images 
of  death,  and  painting  Avas  tending  rapidly  in  the  same 
direction,  when  the  Inferno  of  Dante  opened  a  new  abyss  of 
terrors  to  the  iijiaginations  of  the  artists,  and  became  the 
rejiresentative,  and  in  a  measure  the  source,  of  an  art  that 
was  at  once  singularly  beautiful,  purely  religious,  and  deeply 
imbued  with  terrorism  and  with  asceticism. 

These  were  the  characteristics  of  the  first  period  of  re- 
vived art,  and  they  harmonised  well  with  the  intelletual  con- 
dition of  the  day.  After  a  time,  however,  the  renewed  ener- 
gies of  the  European  mind  began  to  produce  effects  that  were 
far  more  important.  A  spirit  of  unshackled  criticism,  a  capacity 
for  refined  abstractions,  a  dislike  to  materialism  in  faitli  and  to 
asceticism  in  practice,  a  disposition  to  treat  with  miceremonious 
ridicule  imposture  and  ignorance  in  high  places,  an  impatience 
of  the  countless  ceremonies  and  trivial  superstitions  that  were 
universal,  and  a  grovring  sense  of  human  dignity,  were  mani- 
fested on  all  sides,  and  they  adumbrated  clearly  a  coming 
change.  The  movement  was  shown  in  the  whole  tone  of 
literature,  and  in  the  rej^eated  and  passionate  efforts  to  attain 
a  more  spiritual  creed  tliat  were  made  by  the  precursors  of 
the  Eeforraation.  It  was  shown  at  least  as  forcibly  in  the 
rapid  corruption  of  every  organ  of  the  old  religion.  Tliey 
no  longer  could  attract  religious  fervour;  and  as  their  life 
was  gone,  they  degenerated  and  decayed.  The  monasteries, 
once  the  scenes  of  the  most  marvellous  disj^lays  of  ascetic 

profession  of  mouks  to  betake  themselves  to  '  vast  solitudes '  and  '  desert 
places.'     {Cod.  Theod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  3,  c.  1.) 

'  Tliat  is,  by  the  introduction  of  the  cross,  which  was  the  first  innovation 
on  the  old  basilica  arcliitecture,  and  in  many  of  the  churches  by  a  slight  in- 
clination of  the  extremity  from  the  straight  line,  it  is  said,  to  represent  the 
verse,  'Jesus  bowed  Im  head  and  gave  up  the  ghost.' 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   EATIOXALISM.  251 

piety,  ibecame  the  seats  of  revelry,  of  licentiousness,  and  of 
avarice.  The  sacred  relics  and  the  miraculous  images,  that 
had  so  long  thrilled  the  hearts  of  multitudes,  were  made  a 
source  of  unholy  traffic,  or  of  unMusliing  imposition.  The 
indulgences,  which  were  intended  to  assuage  the  agonies  of 
a  despairing  conscience,  or  to  lend  an  additional  charm  to  the 
devotions  of  the  j^ious,  became  a  substitute  for  all  real  re- 
ligion. The  Papal  See  itself  was  stained  with  the  most  de- 
grading vice,  and  the  Vatican  exhibited  the  spectacle  of  a 
pagan  court  without  the  redeeming  virtue  of  pagan  sincerity. 
Wherever  the  eye  was  turned,  it  encountered  the  signs  of 
disorganisation,  of  corruption,  and  of  decay.  For  the  long 
night  of  mediaevalism  was  now  drawing  to  a  close,  and  the 
chaos  that  precedes  resurrection  was  supreme.  The  sj)irit  of 
ancient  Greece  had  arisen  from  the  tomb,  and  the  fabric  of 
superstition  crumbled  and  tottered  at  her  touch.  The  human 
mind,  starting  beneath  her  influence  from  the  dust  of  ages, 
cast  aside  the  bonds  that  had  enchained  it,  and,  radiant 
in  the  light  of  recovered  liberty,  remoulded  the  structure  of 
its  faith.  The  love  of  truth,  the  j^assion  for  freedom,  the 
sense  of  human  dignity,  which  the  great  thinkers  of  antiquity 
had  inspired,  vivified  a  torpid  and  down-trodden  people, 
blended  with  those  sublime  moral  doctrines  and  with  those 
conceptions  of  enlarged  benevolence,  which  are  at  once  the 
glory  and  the  essence  of  Christianity,  introduced  a  new  era 
of  human  development,  with  new  aspirations,  habits  of 
thought,  and  conditions  of  vitality,  and  withdrawing  re- 
ligious life  from  the  shattered  edifice  of  the  past,  created 
a  purer  faith,  and  became  the  promise  of  an  eternal  develop- 
ment. 

This  was  the  tendency  of  the  human  intellect,  and  it  was 
faithfully  reflected  in  the  liistory  of  art.     As  the  old  Catholic 


252  EATIOXALISM   IN    EUPwOPE. 

modes  of  thought  began  to  fade,  the  religious  idea  disappeared 
from  the  paintings,  and  they  became  purely  secular,  if  not  sen- 
sual, in  their  tone.  Religion,  which  was  once  the  mistress,  was 
now  the  servant,  of  art.  Formerly  the  painter  employed  his 
skill  simply  in  embellishing  and  enhancing  a  religious  idea. 
He  now  employed  a  religious  subject  as  the  pretext  for  the 
exhibition  of  mere  worldly  beauty.  He  commonly  painted 
his  mistress  as  the  Virgin.  He  arrayed  her  in  the  richest 
attire,  and  surrounded  her  with  all  the  circumstances  of 
splendour.  He  crowded  his  pictures  with  nude  figures  with 
countenances  of  sensual  loveliness,  with  every  form  and  atti- 
tude that  could  act  upon  the  passions,  and  not  unfrequently 
with  images  drawn  from  the  pagan  mythology.  The  crea- 
tion of  beauty  became  the  single  object  of  his  art.  His  work 
was  a  secular  work,  to  be  judged  by  a  secular  standard. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  secularisation  of  art  was 
due  to  the  general  tone  of  thought  that  had  been  produced 
in  Europe.  The  artist  seeks  to  represent  the  conceptions 
of  his  time,  and  his  popularity  is  the  proof  of  his  success.  In 
an  age  in  which  strong  religious  belief  was  general,  and  in 
which  it  turned  to  painting  as  to  the  natural  organ  of  its 
expression,  such  a  style  would  have  been  impossible.  The 
profanity  of  the  painter  would  have  excited  universal  exe- 
cration, and  all  the  genius  of  Titian  or  Angelo  would  have 
been  unable  to  save  their  works  from  condemnation.  The 
style  became  popular,  because  educated  men  ceased  to  look 
for  religion  in  pictures,  or  in  other  words  because  the  habits 
of  thought  that  made  them  demand  material  representations 
of  the  objects  of  their  belief  had  declined. 

This  was  the  ultimate  cause  of  tlie  entire  movement. 
There  were,  however,  two  minor  causes  of  great  importance, 
wliich  contributed  largely  to  tlie  altered  tone  of  art,  while 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   KATIONALISM.  253 

they  at  the  same  time  immeasurably  increased  its  perfec 
tion — one  of  them  relating  especially  to  colour,  and  the  other 
to  form. 

The  first  of  these  causes  is  to  be  found  in  the  moral  con- 
dition of  Italian  society.  The  age  was  that  of  Bianca  di 
Capello,  and  of  the  Borgias.  All  Italian  literature  and  all 
Italian  manners  were  of  the  laxest  character,  and  the  fact  was 
neither  concealed  nor  deplored.  But  that  which  especially 
distinguished  Italian  immorality  is,  that,  growing  up  in  the 
midst  of  all  the  forms  of  loveliness,  it  assumed  from  the  first 
a  kind  of  aesthetic  character,  united  with  the  most  passionate 
and  yet  refined  sense  of  the  beautiful,  and  made  art  the 
special  vehicle  of  its  expression.  This  is  one  of  the  peculiar 
characteristics  of  later  Italian  painting,^  and  it  is  one  of  the 
chief  causes  of  its  artistic  perfection.  For  sensuality  has 
always  been  extremely  favourable  to  painting,'^  the  object  of 

'■  German  pictures  are  often  indecent,  but  never  sensual.  It  is  all  the  dif- 
ference between  Swift  and  Don  Juan.  The  nude  figure  as  painted  by  Van  der 
WerfF  is  ivory — as  painted  by  Titian  or  Correggio,  it  is  life.  Spanish  art  tried 
much  to  be  religious  and  respectable ;  and,  like  the  Vergognosa  at  Pisa,  put 
her  hands  before  her  eyes  in  the  midst  of  the  wickedness  that  surrounded  her. 
But  I  am  afraid  she  sometimes  looked  through  her  fingers.  This  aspect  of 
Italian  art  has  been  most  vividly  exhibited  in  the  Avritings  of  Stendhal  (H. 
Beyle). 

'■^  It  is  perhaps  true,  as  modci-n  critics  say,  that  the  transition  of  Greek  art 
from  Phidias  to  Praxiteles  was  a  declension.  It  is  certainly  true  that  that 
transition  was  from  the  representation  of  manly  strength,  and  the  form  of 
beauty  that  is  most  allied  to  it,  to  the  representation  of  beauty  of  a  sensual 
cast — from  an  art  of  which  Minerva  was  the  central  figure,  to  an  art  of  which 
Venus  was  the  type — or  (as  the  German  ci-itics  say)  from  the  ascendency  of 
the  Doric  to  the  ascendency  of  the  Ionic  element.  But  this  decadence,  if  it 
leally  took  place,  is  not,  I  think,  inconsistent  with  what  I  have  stated  in  the 
text ;  for  sculpture  and  painting  have  each  their  special  perfections,  and  the 
success  of  the  artist  will  in  a  great  degree  depend  upon  his  appreciation  of  the 
pecuhar  genius  of  the  art  he  pursues.  Now  sculpture  is  as  far  superior  to 
painting  in  its  capacity  for  expressing  strength  and  masculine  beauty,  as  paint- 
ing h  superior  to  sculpture  in  expressing  warmth  and  passionate  beauty.     AU 


254  eatio:n^alism  ix  eckope. 

tlie  artist  being  to  exhibit  to  the  highest  possible  degree  the 
beauty  and  the  attractive  power  of  the  human  body.  Twice 
in  the  history  of  art  national  sensuality  has  thrown  itself 
into  national  art,  and  in  each  case  with  the  same  result.  The 
first  occasion  was  in  ancient  Greece,  at  the  time  when 
Apelles  derived  a  new  inspiration  from  the  voluptuous  love- 
liness of  Lais,  and  the  goddess  of  beauty,  glowing  with  the 
fresh  charms  of  Phryne  or  Theodota,  kindled  a  transport  of 
no  religious  fervour  in  the  Athenian  mind.  The  second  occa- 
sion was  in  the  Italian  art  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

The  rapid  progress  of  a  sensual  tone  in  all  the  schools  of 
Italian  art  is  a  fact  which  is  too  manifest  to  be  questioned  or 
overlooked ;  but  there  is  one  school  which  may  be  regarded 
especially  as  its  source  and  representative.  This  school  was 
that  of  the  Venetian  painters,  and  it  reflected  very  visibly 
the  character  of  its  cradle.  Never  perhaps  was  any  other 
city  so  plainly  formed  to  be  the  home  at  once  of  passion  and 
of  art.  Sleeping  like  Yen  us  of  old  upon  her  parent  wave, 
Venice,  at  least  in  the  period  of  her  glory,  comprised  within 
herself  all  tL3  influences  that  could  raise  to  the  highest 
point  the  [esthetic  sentiment,  and  all  that  could  lull  the  moral 
sentiment  to  repose.  Wherever  the  eye  was  turned,  it  was 
met  by  forms  of  strange  and  varied  and  entrancing  beauty, 
while  every  sound  that  broke  upon  the  ear  was  mellowed  by 
the  waters  that  were  below.  The  thousand  lights  that  glit- 
tered around  the  gilded  domes  of  St.  Mark,  the  palaces  of 

the  efibrts  of  a  Grecian  chisel  never  equalled  the  voluptuous  power  of  the 
brush  of  Titian ;  and,  on  the  other  liand,  pointing  has  tried  in  vain  to  rival  the 
majesty  and  the  force  of  sculpture.  If  there  be  an  exception  to  this  last 
proposition,  it  is  one  which  proves  the  rule,  for  it  is  furnished  by  Michael 
Angelo,  the  greatest  modern  sculptor,  in  the  most  scul])ture-like  frescoes  in 
the  world.  It  should  be  added,  however,  that  landscape  painting  is  in  no  sense 
the  creature  of  sensuality,  and  Mr.  Ruslcin  has  with  some  force  chained  it  as  a 
Epecial  fruit  of  Christianity. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    RATIONALISM.  255 

matchless  architecture  resting  on  their  own  soft  shadows  in 
the  wave,  the  long  paths  of  murmuring  water,  where  the 
gondola  sways  to  the  lover's  song,  and  where  dark  eyes  lus- 
trous with  i^assion  gleam  from  the  overhanging  balconies, 
tlie  harmony  of  blending  beauties,  and  tlie  languid  and 
voluptuous  charm  that  j^ervades  the  Avhole,  had  all  told 
deeply  and  fitally  on  the  character  of  the  people.  At  every 
period  of  their  history,  but  never  more  so  than  in  the  great 
period  of  Venetian  art,  they  had  been  distinguished  at  once 
for  their  intense  appreciation  of  beauty  and  for  their  uni- 
versal, unbridled,  and  undisguised  licentiousness.^  In  the 
midst  of  such  a  society  it  w\as  very  natural  that  a  great 
school  of  sensual  art  should  arise,  and  many  circumstances 
conspired  in  the  same  direction.  Venice  was  so  far  removed 
from  the  discoveries  of  the  ancient  statues,  that  it  was  never 
influenced  by  what  may  be  termed  the  learned  school  of  art, 
which  eventually  sacrificed  all  sense  of  beauty  to  anatomical 
studies ;  at  the  same  time  the  simultaneous  appearance  of  a 
constellation  of  artists  of  the  very  highest  order,  the  luxu- 
rious habits  that  provided  these  artists  with  abundant 
patrons,  the  discovery  of  oil  painting,'  which  attained  its 
highest  perfection  under  the  skill  of  t]ie  Venetian  colourists, 
perhaps  even  the  rich  merchandise  of  the  East,  accustoming 
the  eye  to  the  most  gorgeous  hues,'  had  all  in  different  ways 

*  On  the  amazing  vice  of  Venice,  and  on  the  violent  but  unsuccessful  efforts 
of  the  magistrates  to  arrest  it,  see  much  curious  evidence  in  Sabatier,  Hist,  de 
la  Legislation  sur  les  Femmes  Publhjucs  (Paris,  1828). 

^  It  is  generally  said  to  have  been  invented  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth 
century  by  Van  Eyck,  who  died  in  1440  ;  but  the  claim  of  Van  Eyck  is  not 
undisputed.  It  was  introduced  into  Italy  about  1452  by  a  Sicilian  painter 
named  Antonello.     (Rio,  Art  Chretien^  tom.  i.  p.  354.) 

^  At  an  earlier  period,  oriental  robes  exercised  an  influence  of  a  difierent 
kind  upon  art.  In  the  thirteenth  century,  when  thoy  began  to  pour  into  France, 
the  ornamentation,  and  especially  the  tracery,  of  the  windows  of  many  of  the 


256  EATIOXALISM   JN   EUEOPE. 

their  favourable  iuttuence  upon  art.  The  study  of  the  nude 
figure,  Avhich  had  been  the  mainspring  of  Greek  art,  and 
which  Christianity  had  so  long  suppressed,  arose  again,  and 
a  school  of  painting  was  formed,  which  for  subtle  sensuality 
of  colouring  had  never  been  equalled,  and,  except  by  Correg- 
gio,  has  scarcely  been  aj^proached.  Titian  in  this  as  in  other 
resj^ects  was  the  leader  of  the  school,  and  he  bears  to  modern 
much  the  same  relation  as  Praxiteles  bears  to  ancient  art. 
Both  the  sculptor  and  the  painter  precij)itated  art  into  sensu- 
ality, both  of  them  destroyed  its  religious  character,  both  of 
them  raised  it  to  high  aesthetic  perfection,  but  in  both  cases 
that  perfection  was  followed  by  a  speedy  decline.^  Even  in 
Venice  there  was  one  great  representative  of  the  early  re- 
ligious school,  but  his  influence  was  unable  to  stay  the 
stream.  The  Virgin  of  Bellini  was  soon  exchanged  for  the 
Virgin  of  Titian — the  ideal  of  female  piety  for  the  ideal  of 
female  beauty. 

A  second  influence  which  contributed  to  the  secularisa- 
tion, and  at  the  same  time  to  the  perfection  of  art,  was  the 
discovery  of  many  of  the  great  works  of  pagan  sculpture. 

French  cathedrals  is  said  to  have  been  copied  accurately  from  these  patterns. 
See  a  very  curious  essay  on  painted  glass  by  Thevenot  (Paris,  1837).  I  may 
add  that,  at  the  time  of  Augustus,  the  importation  of  Indian  dresses  had  told 
powerfully  on  Roman  art,  producing  the  paintings  known  as  arabesque,  and 
(as  Vitruvius  complains)  diverting  the  artists  from  the  study  of  the  Greek 
model.  In  the  middle  ages  both  Venice  and  Florence  were  famous  for  their 
dyers. 

^  Praxiteles  is  said  to  have  definitively  given  the  character  of  sensuality  to 
Venus,  who  had  previously  floated  between  several  ideals  of  beauty,  and  also 
to  have  been  the  especial  author  of  the  effeminate  type  of  Apollo.  Phryne, 
who  was  then  the  great  model  of  voluptuous  beauty — she  who,  having  been 
condemned  to  death,  was  absolved  on  account  of  her  exceeding  loveliness — 
was  his  mistress.  His  contemporary  Polycles  greatly  strengthened  the  sensual 
movement  by  introducing  into  art  the  hermaphrodite.  See  Kio,  Art  Chretien, 
Introd.  pp.  1'7-21  ;  0.  Miiller,  Manuel  d'Archeologle,  torn.  i.  pp.  15G,  157. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    RATIONALISM.  257 

The  complete  disappearance  of  these  during  the  preceding 
centuries  may  be  easily  explained  by  the  religious  and  intel- 
lectual changes  that  had  either  accompanied  or  speedily  fol- 
lowed the  triumph  of  Christianity.  The  priests,  and  especial- 
ly the  monks,  being  firmly  convinced  that  pagan  idols  were 
all  tenanted  by  demons,  for  some  time  made  it  one  of  their 
principal  objects  to  break  them  in  pieces,  and  cupidity 
proved  scarcely  less  destructive  than  fanaticism.  Among 
the  ancient  Greeks,  as  is  Avell  knovv^n,  marble  had  never  ob- 
tained the  same  ascendency  in  sculpture  as  among  ourselves. 
Great  numbers  of  statues  were  made  of  bronze,  but  the  mas- 
terpieces of  the  most  illustrious  artists  were  of  far  more 
valuable  materials,  usually  of  ivory  or  of  gold.  jSTo  features 
are  more  wonderful  in  the  history  of  the  Greek  states  than 
the  immense  sums  they  consented  to  withdraw  from  all  other 
objects,  to  expend  upon  the  cultivation  of  beauty,  and  the 
religious  care  with  which  these  precious  objects  were  pre- 
served unbarmed  amid  all  the  vicissitudes  of  national  for- 
tune, amid  war,  rebellion,  and  conquest.  This  preservation 
was  in  part  due  to  the  intense  aesthetic  feeling  that  was  so 
general  in  antiquity,  but  in  part  also  to  the  catholicity  of 
spirit  that  usually  accompanied  polytheism,  which  made 
men  regard  with  reverence  the  objects  and  ceremonies  even  of 
worships  that  were  not  their  own,  and  which  was  especially 
manifested  by  the  Romans,  who  in  all  their  conquests  re- 
spected the  temples  of  the  vanquished  as  representing  under 
many  forms  the  aspiration  of  man  to  his  Creator.  Both  of 
these  sentiments  were  blotted  out  by  Christianity.  For 
about  1,500  years  the  conception  that  there  could  be  any- 
thing deserving  of  reverence  or  respect,  or  even  of  tolerance, 
m  the  religions  that  were  external  to  the  Church,  was  abso- 
lutely unknown  in  Christendom ;  and  at  the  same  time  the 

VOL.  I. — 17  ^ 


258  RATIONALISM   IN    EL'ROPE. 

ascetic  theories  I  have  noticed  destroyed  all  perccj^tion  of 
beauty,  or  at  least  of  that  type  of  beauty  which  sculpture 
represented.  The  bronze  statues  were  converted  into  coin- 
age, the  precious  metals  were  plundered,^  the  marble  was 
mutilated  or  forgotten.  When  Christianity  arose,  the  colos- 
sal statue  of  Jupiter  01ym]3us,  in  gold  and  ivory,  which  was 
deemed  the  masterpiece  of  Phidias,  and  the  greatest  of  all 
the  achievements  of  art,  still  existed  at  Olympia.  Our  last 
notice  of  it  is  during  the  reign  of  Julian.  At  Rome,  the  in- 
vasion of  the  barbarians,  the  absolute  decadence  of  taste  that 
followed  their  ascendency,  and  those  great  conflagrations 
which  more  than  once  reduced  vast  districts  to  ruin,  com- 
pleted the  destruction  of  the  old  traditions,  while  most  of  the 
statues  that  had  been  transported  to  Constantinople,  and  had 
survived  the  fury  of  the  monks,  were  destroyed  by  the  Icon- 
oclasts, the  Crusaders,  or  the  Mahometans. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  Nicolas  of  Pisa  for  the  first  time  broke  the 
slumber  of  mediaeval  art  by  the  skill  he  had  derived  from  the 
works  of  antiquity.  There  was  then,  however,  no  ancient 
model  of  the  highest  class  known,  and  the  princii^al  subject 
of  his  study  is  said  to  have  been  a  pagan  sarcophagus  of  third 
or  fourth  rate  merit,  wliich  had  been  emj^loyed  for  the  burial 
of  the  mother  of  the  famous  Countess  Matilda,  and  which 
Avas  then  in  the  Cathedral,  and  is  now  in  the  Campo  Santo, 
of  Pisa.  Giotto,  Masaccio,  and  their  contemporaries,  all  pur- 
sued their  triumphs  without  the  assistance  of  any  great 
ancient  model.  As  Flaxman  has  noticed,  Poggio,  who  wrote 
at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  was  only  able  to 
enumerate  six  statues  within  the  walls  of  Rome.     Rienzi  and 

^  Constantine  himself  set  the  example  in  this  respect.  See  the  admiring 
remarks  of  Eusebir.s,  T7/a  Const,  lib.  iii,  caps.  5,  6. 


DEVELOPMENTS   OF   RATIONALISM.  259 

Petrarch  gave  some  slight  impulse  to  archaeological  collec- 
tions, and  during  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  the 
exertions  of  the  Medici,  and  of  a  long  series  of  popes,  sus- 
tained by  the  passionate  admiration  for  antiquity  that  fol- 
Icwed  the  revival  of  learning,  produced  vast  works  of  exca 
vation,  which  were  rewarded  by  the  discovery  of  numerous 
statues.^  Art  immediately  rose  to  an  unparalleled  perfection, 
and  an  unbounded  and  almost  universal  entlmsiasm  was 
created.  Paul  II.  indeed,  in  1468,  directed  a  fierce  persecu- 
tion against  the  artists  at  Rome ; '  but  as  a  general  rule  his 
successors  were  warm  patrons  of  art,  and  Julius  II.  and  Leo 
X.  may  even  be  regarded  as  the  most  munificent  of  their 
munificent  age.  All  the  artists  of  Rome  and  Florence  made 
the  remains  of  pagan  antiquity  their  models.  Michael  Angelo 
himself  proclaimed  the  Torso  Belvedere  his  true^  master.^ 
The  distinctive  type  and  tone  of  Christianity  was  thus  almost 
banished  from  art,  and  replaced  by  the  types  of  paganism. 

Such  was  the  movement  which  was  general  in  Italian  art, 
but  it  did  not  pass  unchallenged,  and  it  Avas  retarded  by  one 
most  remarkable  reaction.  Under  the  very  palace  of  tlie 
Medici,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  noblest  collections  of  pagan 
art,  a  great  preacher  arose  who  perceived  clearly  the  danger- 
ous tendency,  and  who  employed  the  full  force  of  a  transcen- 

^  When  this  impulse  had  ceased  in  Italy,  it  was  still  in  'some  degree  con- 
tinued by  the  explorations  of  the  French  in  Greece,  where  a  French  consulate 
was  formed  about  1630.  Sec  Vitet,  Etudes  stir  VHis:oire  de  PArl,  toni.  i. 
p.  9i. 

^  See  the  description  in  Platina. 

^  And  was  accordingly  in  sculpture  (as  in  painting)  singularly  unfortunate 
in  catching  the  moral  expression  of  Scripture  subjects.  His  Moses — half  pi-ize- 
fighter,  half  Jupiter  Tonans — is  certainly  the  extreme  antithesis  to  '  the  meek- 
est man  in  all  the  world.'  His  colossal  statue  of  David  after  his  victory  over 
Goliath  (it  would  be  as  rational  to  make  a  colossal  statue  of  a  Lillipuriiiii) 
would  be  perfect  as  an  Achilles. 


260  KATIONALISM   IX   EUEOPE. 

dent  genius  to  arrest  it.  ,  The  influence  of  Savonarola  upon 
painting  has  been  so  lately  and  so  fully  described  by  an  able 
living  historian  of  art/  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  upon 
it  at  length.  It  is  sufficient  to  say,  that  during  the  last  few 
years  of  the  fifteenth  century  a  complete  religious  revival 
took  place  in  Tuscany,  and  that  Savonarola,  who  was  much 
more  than  a  brilliant  orator,  perceived  very  clearly  that  in 
order  to  make  it  permanent  it  was  necessary  to  ally  it  with 
the  tendencies  of  the  age.  He  accordingly,  like  all  success- 
ful religious  revivalists  of  ancient  and  modern  times,  pro- 
ceeded to  identify  religion  with  liberty  and  with  democracy 
by  his  denunciations  of  the  tyranny  of  the  Medici,  and  by 
the  creation  of  great  lending  societies,  for  the  purpose  of 
checking  the  oppressive  usury  that  had  become  general.  He 
endeavoured  to  secure  the  ascendency  of  his  opinions  over 
the  coming  generation  by  guiding  the  education  of  the  chil- 
dren, and  by  making  them  the  special  objects  of  his  preach- 
ing. He  attempted  above  all  to  purify  the  very  sources  of 
Italian  life,  b}^  regenerating  the  sacred  music,  and  by  restor- 
ing painting  to  its  j)ristine  purity.  Week  after  week  he 
launched  from  the  pulpit  the  most  scathing  invectives  against 
the  artists  who  had  painted  prostitutes  in  the  character  of 
the  Virgin,  who  under  the  pretext  of  religious  art  had  pan- 
dered to  the  licentiousness  of  their  age,  and  who  had  en- 
tirely forgotten  their  true  dignity  as  the  teachers  of  mankind. 
As  these  invectives  were  not  inspired  by  the  fanaticism  of 
the  old  Iconoclasts,  but  proceeded  from  one  who  possessed  to 
tlie  highest  degree  the  Tuscan  perception  of  the  beautiful, 
tliey  produced  an  impression  that  was  altogether  unparal- 
leled. Almost  all  the  leading  painters  of  Italy  were  collected 
at  Florence,  and  almost  all,  under  the  influence  of  Savona 

^  Rio — I  tbiuk  the  best  part  of  bis  book. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    EATIOXALISM.  2G1 

rola,  attempted  to  revive  the  religious  character  of  art.  The 
change  was  immediately  exhibited  in  the  painting  of  Italy, 
and  the  impression  Savonarola  made  upon  the  artists  was 
sliown  by  the  conduct  of  many  of  them  when  the  great  re- 
former had  perished  in  the  flames.  Botticelli  cast  aside  his 
pencil  for  ever.  Baccio  dclla  Porta  ^  retired  broken-hearted 
into  a  monastery.  Perugino  (perhaps  the  greatest  of  all  the 
purely  religious  painters  of  Catholicism)  glided  rapidly  into 
scepticism,  and  on  his  death-bed  refused  disdainfully  the  as- 
sistance of  a  confessor.  Raphael,  who  had  derived  all  the 
religious  sentiment  of  his  early  paintings  from  Perugino,  was 
the  first  to  vindicate  the  orthodoxy  of  Savonarola  by  insert- 
ing his  portrait  among  those  of  the  doctors  of  the  Church,  in 
the  fresco  of  the  Dispute  of  the  Sacrament. 

After  the  death  of  Savonarola  the  secularisation  of  art 
was  portentously  rapid.  Even  Raphael,  who  exhibits  the 
tendency  less  than  his  contemporaries,  never  shrank  from  de- 
stroying the  religious  character  of  his  later  works  by  the 
introduction  of  incongruous  images.  Michael  Angelo,  that 
great  worshipper  of  physical  force,  probably  represented  the 
influence  to  the  highest  degree.  Scarcely  any  other  great 
painter  so  completely  eliminated  the  religious  sentiment  from 
art,  and  it  was  reserved  for  him  to  destroy  the  most  fearful 
of  all  the  conceptions  by  which  the  early  painters  had 
thrilled  the  people.  By  making  the  Last  Judgment  a  study 
of  naked  figures,  and  by  introducing  into  it  Charon  and  his 
boat,  he  most  effectually  destroyed  all  sense  of  its  reality, 
and  reduced  it  to  the  province  of  artistic  criticism.  This 
fresco  may  be  regarded  as  the  culmination  of  the  movement. 
There  were  of  course  at  a  later  period  some  great  pictures, 
and  even  some  religious  painters,  but  painting  never  again 

*  Better  known  as  Fra  Bartolommeo. 


2G2  EATIONA.LISM   II-T    EL'EOPE- 

assumed  its  old  position  as  the  normal  and  habitual  expres- 
sion of  the  religious  sentiments  of  the  educated.  In  the  first 
period  of  mediaevalism  it  had  been  exclusively  religious,  and 
iTssthetic  considerations  were  almost  forgotten.  In  the 
second  period  the  two  elements  coexisted.  In  tlie  last  period 
the  religious  sentiment  disappeared,  and  the  conception  of 
beauty  reigned  alone.  Art  had  then  completed  its  cycle. 
It  never  afterwards  assumed  a  prominent  or  commanding  in- 
fluence over  the  minds  of  men. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  a  transition  very  similar  to 
that  we  have  traced  in  painting  took  place  about  the  same 
time  in  architecture.  The  architect,  it  is  true,  does  not  sup- 
ply actual  objects  of  worship,  and  in  this  respect  his  art  is 
less  closely  connected  than  that  of  the  painter  with  the  his- 
tory of  anthropomorphism;  but  on  the  other  hand,  the  period 
in  which  men  require  a  visible  material  object  of  worship,  is 
also  that  in  which  their  religious  tone  and  sentiment  are  most 
dependent  upon  imjDosing  sensuous  displays.  Christianity 
has  created  three  things  which  religious  poetry  has  ever 
recognised  as  the  special  tj-pes  and  expressions  of  its  relig- 
ious sentiment.  These  are  the  church  bell,  the  organ,  and 
the  Gothic  cathedral.  The  first  is  said  to  have  been  invented 
by  Paulinus,  a  bishop  of  ^STola  in  Campania,  about  the  year 
400.^  The  second  appears  to  have  been  first  used  in  the 
Greek  Church,  and  to  have  passed  into  the  Western  Empire 
in  the  seventli  or  eighth  century.'     The  third  arose  under  the 

^  Anderson,  Hist  of  Commerce,  vol.  ii.  p.  36.  There  is  a  ver}'  curious 
collection  of  passages  from  the  Acts  of  the  Saints,  in  which  bells  are  alluded 
10  (but  none  of  them  apparently  earlier  than  the  beginning  of  the  seventh 
century)  in  an  out-of-the-way  quarter.  (Suarcz,  De  Fide,  lib.  ii.  c.  16.)  See, 
too,  Colgan's  Acta  Sanctorum  Jllbcrnicc,  torn.  i.  p.  149. 

'  Anderson,  vol.  i.  p.  30.  There  had  before  been  known  a  water  organ, 
called  an  hydraulicon.     There  was  also  a  wind  instrument  which  some  have 


DEYELOPMEXTS    OF   RATIOXALISir,  263 

revived  sense  of  beauty  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  precedecl 
by  a  little  the  resurrection  of  painting.  The  new  jiictures 
and  the  new  churches  were  both  the  occasions  of  ebullitions 
of  the  most  passionate  devotion.  When  Cimabue  painted 
one  of  his  famous  Virgins,  the  people  of  Florence  gathered 
aroand  it  as  to  a  religious  festival,  they  transported  it  with 
prayers  and  thanksgivings  to  the  church,  and  filled  the 
streets  with  hymns  of  joy,  because  a  higher  realisation  of  a 
religious  conception  had  flashed  upon  them.  Just  so  those 
majestic  cathedrals  that  arose  almost  simultaneously  through- 
out Europe  became  at  once  the  channel  of  the  enthusiasm  of 
Christendom ;  the  noblest  efforts  of  self-sacrifice  were  made 
to  erect  them,  and  they  were  universally  regarded  as  the 
purest  expression  of  the  religious  feeling  of  the  age.  That 
this  estimate  was  correct,  that  no  other  buildings  the  world 
has  seen  are  so  admirably  calculated  to  produce  a  sensation 
of  blended  awe  and  tranquillity,  to  liarmonise  or  assuage  the 
qualms  of  passion,  to  lull  to  sleep  the  rebellious  energies  of 
the  intellect,  to  create  around  the  mind  an  artificial,  un- 
worldly, but  most  impressive  atmosphere,  to  represent  a 
Church  which  acts  upon  the  imagination  by  obscurity  and 
terrorism,  and  by  images  of  solemn  and  entrancing  beauty, 
will  be  admitted  by  all  who  have  any  perception  of  the  char- 
acter, or  any  knowledge  of  the  history  of  art.  Whenever 
tliese  modes  of  feeling  have  been  very  general,  Gothic  archi- 
tecture has  been  the  object  of  rapturous  admiration.  When- 
placed  among  the  antcectlents  of  the  organ,  but  which  seems  to  have  been 
almost  exactly  the  same  as  a  Scotch  bagpipe.  I  am  sorry  to  say  Julian  had 
the  bad  taste  to  praise  it  in  one  of  his  epigrams.  (Sec  Burney,  Hist,  of  J/usic, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  65-07.)  There  is  a  curious  series  of  papers  on  the  musical  instru- 
ments in  the  middle  ages,  by  Coussemaker,  in  the  Annates  Archeologiqites 
(edited  by  Didron),  tom.  iv.  They  have  since,  I  believe,  been  pubhshed 
separately. 


261  EATIOXALISM   IX   EUROPE. 

ever  these  modes  of  feeling  were  very  rare,  Gothic  architec- 
ture has  sunk  into  neglect  and  disfavour.^ 

I  do  not  intend  to  follow  at  length  the  vicissitudes  of 
architecture,  or  to  trace  the  successive  phases  of  its  seculari- 

^  We  have  a  very  striking  example  of  this  in  both  the  buildings  and  the 
criticisms  of  the  eighteenth  century.  What  (e.  g.)  should  we  now  say  to  an 
imaginative  writer  who,  speaking  of  York  Minster,  assured  us,  as  Smollett 
does,  'that  the  external  appearance  of  an  old  cathedral  cannot  but  be  dis- 
pleasing to  the  eye  of  every  man  who  has  any  idea  of  propriety  and  propor- 
tion ; '  who  could  only  describe  Durham  Cathedral  as  '  a  huge  gloomy  pile ; ' 
and  who  acknowledged  that  he  associated  the  idea  of  a  church  with  a  spire 
especially  with  that  of  a  man  impaled  (see  Humphrey  Clinker)  ?  Every  one, 
I  should  think,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  the  literature  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  must  have  been  struck  with  the  contempt  for  Gothic  architecture  per- 
vading it ;  but  the  extent  to  which  this  was  carried  was  never  fully  shown  till 
the  publication,  a  few  years  ago,  of  an  exceedingly  curious  book  by  the  Abbe 
Corblet,  called  L' Architecture  du  Moyen  Agejugee  par  les  Ecrivains  des  deux 
derniers  Siecles  (Paris,  1859).  The  learned  antiquarian  has  sho^Mi  thai,  dur- 
ing the  last  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  during  the  whole  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  there  was  scarcely  a  single  writer,  no  matter  what  may 
have  been  his  religious  opinions,  who  did  not  speak  of  Gothic  architecture 
not  merely  without  appreciation,  but  with  the  most  supreme  and  xmqualified 
contempt.  The  list  includes,  among  others,  Fenelon,  Bossuet,  Moliere,  Fleury, 
Kollin,  Montesquieu,  La  Bruyere,  Helvetius,  Eousseau,  Mcngs,  and  Voltaire. 
Goethe  at  one  time  opposed,  but  afterwards  yielded  to,  the  stream.  Milan 
Cathedral  was  the  special  object  of  ridicule.  Gothic  architecture  was  then 
almost  universally  ascribed  to  the  Goths  of  the  fifth  century,  and  Bishop  War- 
burton  suggested  that  they  had  derived  the  idea  from  the  overarching  boughs 
of  their  native  forests.  Some,  however  (and  among  others  Barry),  regarded  it 
as  an  imperfect  imitation  of  Greek  architecture.  Many  of  the  criticisms  were 
very  curious.  Thus,  Dupuis  thought  the  zodiacs  on  the  cathedrals  were  a  rem- 
nant of  the  worship  of  Mithra.  Another  critic  found  a  connection  between 
the  shape  of  the  ogive  and  the  eggs  of  Isis.  A  third,  named  Montluisant, 
explained  all  the  sculptures  on  the  fronts  of  Xotre  Dame  de  Paris  by  the 
Bcience  of  the  philosopher's  stone :  God  the  Father,  holding  an  angel  in  each 
hand,  is  the  Deity  calhng  into  existence  the  incombustible  sulphur  and  the 
mercury  of  life.  The  flying  dragon  biting  its  tail  is  the  philosoplier's  stone, 
composed  of  the  fixed  and  the  volatile  substances,  the  former  of  which  devours 
the  latter,  &c.,  &c.  {(Euvres  de  St.  Foix,  torn.  iii.  pp.  245,  246.)  It  is  to  the 
Catholic  revival  of  the  present  century  that  we  mainly  owe  the  revival  of  Gotliic 
architecture. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   RATIONALISM.  2G5 

Bation.  It  is  sufficient  to  observe,  that  about  the  time  when 
the  dense  ignorance  that  had  overspread  Europe  was  dis- 
]3elled,  there  arose  a  form  of  architecture  which  was  exclu- 
sively and  emphatically  Christian,  which  has  been  universally 
admitted  to  be  beyond  all  others  the  most  accordant  with 
tlie  spirit  of  mediajval  religion,  and  in  which  the  highest 
sense  of  beauty  Avas  subordinated  to  the  religious  sentiment. 
At  the  time  when  the  modern  and  intellectual  chaos  that 
preceded  the  Keformation  was  universal,  and  when  painting 
had  been  secularised  and  had  passed  entirely  into  the  wor- 
ship of  beauty,  architecture  exhibited  a  corresponding  de- 
cadence. The  old  Gothic  style  was  everywhere  discarded, 
and  it  was  supplanted  under  the  influence  of  Brunelleschi  ^  by 
a  style  which  some  persons  may  deem  more  beautiful,  but 
which  is  universally  admitted  to  be  entirely  devoid  of  a  re- 
ligious character.  The  gorgeous,  gay,  and  beautifully  pro- 
portioned edifices  that  then  rose  to  fashion  were,  in  fact, 
avovv^edly  formed  from  the  model  of  the  great  temples  of 
antiquity,  and  the  beauty  to  which  they  aspired  was  purely 
classic.  Colosjne  Cathedral,  the  last  of  the  2:reat  mediaeval 
works,  remained  unfinished  while  the  whole  energies  of 
Europe  were  concentrated  upon  the  church  of  St.  Peter  at 
Rome.  The  design  of  this  great  work  was  confided  to 
Michael  Angelo,  who  had  been  the  chief  agent  in  the  secu- 
larisation of  painting,  and  the  spirit  in  which  he  undertook 
it  was  clearly  expressed  in  his  famous  exclamation,  that  he 
would  suspend  the  Pantheon  in  the  air. 

^  It  is  true  that  the  Greek  traditions  had  always  lingered  in  Ital\',  and 
that  pure  Gothic  never  succeeded  in  gaining  an  ascendency  there  as  in  other 
countries.  The  little  church  of  St.  Maria  della  Spina,  at  Pisa,  which  was 
designed  by  Nicolas  of  Pisa,  is  probably  the  best  specimen  of  purely  Italian 
origin,  for  Milan  Cathedral  is  said  to  be  due  to  German  architects ;  but  this 
fact,  while  it  accounts  for  Italy  having  been  the  great  assailant  of  the  Gothic, 
did  not  prevent  its  influ.mce  from  being  cosmopoUtan. 


266  EATIOXALISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

Of  all  the  edifices  that  have  been  raised  by  the  hand  of 
man,  there  is  none  that  presents  to  the  historian  of  the 
human  mind  a  deeper  interest  than  St.  Peter's,  and  there  is 
certainly  none  that  tells  a  sadder  tale  of  the  frustration  oi 
human  efforts  and  the  futility  of  human  hopes.  It  owes  its 
greatest  splendour  to  a  worldly  and  ambitious  pontiff,^  who 
lias  not  even  obtained  an  epitaph  beneath  its  dome.  It  was 
designed  to  be  the  eternal  monument  of  the  glory  and  the 
universality  of  Catholicism,  and  it  has  become  the  most  im- 
pressive memorial  of  its  decay.  The  most  sublime  associa- 
tions that  could  appeal  to  the  intellect  or  the  religious  sen- 
timent cluster  thickly  around  it,  but  an  association  of  which 
none  had  dreamed  has  consecrated  it,  and  will  abide  with  it 
for  ever.  The  most  sacred  relics  of  the  Catholic  faith  are 
assembled  within  its  walls.  The  genius  of  Michael  Angelo, 
Raphael,  Bramante,  Cellini,  Thorwaldsen,  and  Canova  has 
adorned  it.  Mosaics  of  matchless  beauty  reproduce  the 
greatest  triumphs  of  Christian  painting,  and  mingle  their 
varied  hues  with  those  gorgeous  marbles  that  miglit  have 
absorbed  the  revenues  of  a  kingdom.  Beneath  that  majestic 
dome,  which  stands  like  the  emblem  of  eternity,  and  dwarfs 
the  proudest  monuments  below,  rest  the  remains  of  those 
who  were  long  deemed  the  greatest  of  the  sons  of  men. 
There  lie  those  mediasval  pontiffs  who  had  borne  aloft  the 
lamp  of  knowledge  in  an  evil  and  benighted  age,  Avho  had 
guided  and  controlled  the  march  of  nations,  and  had  been 
almost  worshipped  as  the  representatives  of  the  Almighty. 
There  too  the  English  traveller  pauses  amid  many  more 
splendid  objects  at  the  sculptured  slab  which  bears  the  names 
of  the  last  scions  of  a  royal  race,  tliat  for  good  or  for  ill  had 
deeply  influenced  the  destiny  of  his  land.      ]3ut  inexpressi- 

^  Julius  11. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   EATIOXALISM.  287 

bly  great  as  are  tliese  associations  in  the  eyes  of  the  theolo- 
gian, the  recollection  of  Luther,  and  the  indulgences,  and  the 
Reformation,  will  tower  above  them  all ;  while  to  the  philo- 
sophic historian  St.  Peter's  possesses  an  interest  of  a  still 
higher  order.  For  it  represents  the  conclusion  of  that  im- 
pulse, growing  out  of  the  anthropomorphic  habits  of  an  early 
civilisation,  which  had  led  men  for  so  many  centuries  to  ex- 
press their  religious  feelings  by  sensuous  images  of  grandeur, 
of  obscurity,  and  of  terrorism.  It  represents  the  absorption 
of  the  religious  by  the  aesthetic  element,  which  was  the  sure 
sign  that  the  religious  function  of  architecture  had  termi- 
nated. The  age  of  the  cathedrals  had  passed.  The  age  of 
the  printing  press  had  begun. 

I  have  dwelt  at  considerable  length  upon  this  aspect  of 
the  history  of  art,  both  because  it  is,  I  think,  singularly  fasci- 
nating in  itself,  and  because  it  reflects  with  striking  fidelity 
the  religious  dcA^elopments  of  the  time.  When  the  organs 
of  a  belief  are  entirely  changed,  it  may  be  assumed  that 
there  is  some  corres23onding  change  in  the  modes  of  thought 
of  which  they  are  the  expression ;  and  it  cannot  be  too  often 
repeated,  that  before  j^i'inting  was  invented,  and  while  all 
conceptions  were  grossly  anthropomorphic,  the  true  course 
of  ecclesiastical  history  is  to  be  sought  much  more  in  the 
works  of  the  artists  than  of  the  theologians.  It  is  now  ad- 
mitted by  most  competent  judges,  that  the  true  causes  of  the 
Reformation  are  to  be  found  in  the  dee-p  change  effected  in 
the  intellectual  habits  of  Europe  by  that  revival  of  learning 
which  began  about  the  twelfth  century  in  the  renewed  study 
of  the  Latin  classics,  and  reached  its  climax  after  the  fall 
of  Constantinople  in  the  diff'iision  of  the  knowledge  of 
Greek  and  of  the  philosophy  of  Plato  by  the  Greek  exiles. 
This  revival  ultimately  produced  a  condition   of  religious 


268  RATIONALISM   IX    EUKOPE. 

feeling  wliich  found  its  expression  in  some  countries  in  Prot 
estantism,*  and  in  other  countries  in  the  prevalence  among 
the  educated  classes  of  a  diluted  and  rationalistic  Catholicism 
entirely  different  from  the  gross  and  absorbing  superstition 
of  the  middle  ages.  Which  of  these  two  forms  was  adopted 
in  any  particular  country  depended  upon  many  special  polit- 
ical or  social,  or  even  geographical  considerations;  but, 
wherever  the  intellectual  movement  was  strongly  felt,  one 
or  other  appeared.  It  is  surely  a  remarkable  coincidence, 
that  while  the  literature  of  antiquity  was  thus  on  a  large 
scale  modifying  the  mediaeval  modes  of  thought,  the  ancient 
sculptures  should  on  a  smaller  scale  have  exercised  a  corre- 
sponding influence  upon  the  art  that  was  their  expression. 
And,  although  the  aesthetic  movement  was  necessarily  con- 
fined to  the  upper  classes  and  to  the  countries  in  which  civili- 
sation was  most  prominent,  it  represented  faithfully  a  ten- 
dency that  in  different  forms  was  still  more  widely  displayed. 
It  represented  the  gradual  destruction  of  the  ascendency  which 
the  Church  had  once  exercised  over  every  department  of  in- 
tellect, the  growing  difference  in  realised  belief  between  the 
educated  and  the  ignorant,  and  the  gradual  disappearance 
of  anthropomorphic  or  idolatrous  concei^tions  among  the 
former. 

The  aspect,  however,  of  the  subject  which  is  peculiarly 
significant,  is,  I  think,  to  be  found  in  the  nature  of  the  transi- 
tion which  religious  art  underwent.  The  sense  of  beauty 
gradually  encroached  upon  and  absorbed  the  feeling  of  rev- 
erence. This  is  a  form  of  religious  decay  which  is  very  far 
from  being  confined  to  the  history  of  art.  The  religion  of 
one  age  is  often  the  poetry  of  the  next.  Around  every  liv- 
ing and  operative  faitli  there  lies  a  region  of  allegory  and 
of  imagination  into  which  opinions  frequently  pass,  and  in 


DEVELOPMEXTS   OF   RATIONALISM  269 

which  they  long  retain  a  transfigured  and  ideahsed  existence 
after  their  natural  life  has  died  away.  They  are,  as  it  were, 
deflected.  They  no  longer  tell  directly  and  forcibly  upon 
human  actions.  They  no  longer  produce  terror,  inspire 
hopes,  awake  passions,  or  mould  the  characters  of  men ;  yet 
they  still  exercise  a  kind  of  reflex  influence,  and  form  part 
of  the  ornamental  culture  of  the  age.  They  are  turned  into 
allegories.  They  are  interpreted  in  a  non-natural  sense. 
They  are  invested  with  a  fanciful,  poetic,  but  most  attractive 
garb.  They  follow  instead  of  conti-olling  the  current  of 
thought,  and  being  transformed  by  flir-fetched  and  ingenious 
explanations,  they  become  the  embellishments  of  systems  of 
belief  that  are  wholly  irreconcilable  with  their  original  ten- 
dencies. The  gods  of  heathenism  were  thus  translated  from 
the  sphere  of  religion  to  the  sphere  of  poetry.  The  grotesque 
legends  and  the  harsh  doctrines  of  a  superstitious  faith  are 
so  explained  away,  that  they  appear  graceful  myths  fore- 
shadowing and  illustrating  the  concej^tions  of  a  brighter 
day.  For  a  time  they  flicker  upon  the  horizon  with  a  softly 
beautiful  light  that  enchants  the  poet,  and  lends  a  charm  to 
the  new  system  with  which  they  are  made  to  blend;  but  at 
last  this  too  fades  away.  Religious  ideas  die  like  the  sun  ; 
their  last  rays,  possessing  little  heat,  are  expended  in  creat- 
ing beauty. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  the  steady  tendency  of  the 
European  mind,  not  merely  in  the  period  that  elapsed  be- 
tween the  revival  of  learning  in  the  twelfth  century  and  the 
Reformation,  but  also  in  that  between  the  Reformation  and 
our  own  day,  has  been  to  disengage  itself  more  and  more 
from  all  the  conceptions  wdiich  are  connected  either  with 
fetishism  or  w^ith  anthropomorphism.  The  evidence  of  this 
meets  us  on  all  sides.      We  find  it  among  the  Catholics,  in 


'210  EATIOXALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

the  steady  increase  in  Catholic  countries  of  a  purely  rational- 
istic public  opinion,  in  the  vast  multiplication  of  rationalistic 
writings,  and  also  in  the  profound  difference  in  the  degree  of 
reverence  attached  even  by  fervent  Catholics  to  images  and 
talismans,  in  cities  like  Paris,  which  are  in  the  centre  of  the 
intellectual  movement  of  the  age,  and  in  cities  like  Seville 
or  Xaples,  which  have  long  been  excluded  from  it.     Among 
the  Protestants  the  same  tendency  is  displayed  with  equal 
force  in  the  rapid  destruction  of  what  is  termed  the  sacra- 
mentarian  principle.      This  is  manifest  in  the   steady  and 
almost  silent  evanescence  of  that  doctrme  of  consubstantia- 
tion  which  was  once  asserted  with  such  extreme  emphasis  as 
the  distinctive  mark  of  the  great  Lutheran  sect,  but  which  is 
now  scarcely  held,  or  if  held  is  scarcely  insisted  on  ; '  in  the 
decadence  of  the  High  Church  party,  which  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  comprised  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
Anglican  clergy,  but  which  in  the  nineteenth  century,  not- 
withstanding a  concurrence  of  favourable  circumstances  and 
the  exertions  of  a  leader  of  extraordinary  genius,  never  in- 
cluded more  than  a  minority  ;  ^  in  the  constant  alteration  of 

^  Indeed  in  Prussia,  and  some  other  parts  of  Germany,  the  Culvinists  and 
Lutherans  have  actually  coalesced.  The  tendency  to  assimilation  appears  to 
have  been  strongly  felt  as  early  as  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
Bishop  Bedell  exerted  himself  strongly  to  promote  it.  (See  some  interesting 
particulars  in  his  I^fe,  by  Usher.)  On  the  recent  amalgamation  of  the  Luther- 
ans and  Calvinists  in  Germany,  and  on  its  relation  to  rationalism,  there  are 
some  remarks  worth  reading  in  Amand  Saintes'  Hist  de  Rationalhme  en 
Allemagne. 

■  The  principles  of  parties  cnange  so  much  more  than  their  names,  that  it 
iH  not  easy  to  get  an  accurate  notion  of  their  strength  at  different  periods. 
Shortly  after  the  accession  of  WiUiam  IIL,  the  Low  Church  clergy,  according 
to  Macaulay  {History  of  England,  vol.  iii.  p.  741),  scarcely  numbered  a  tenth 
part  of  the  priesthood.  On  their  strength  in  the  present  controversy,  see  some 
curious  statistics  in  Conybeare's  Essay  on  Chnrch  Parties.  The  failure  of 
the  movement  was  very  candidly  confessed  by  the  leader,  in  his  Anglican 
Dij^culties. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   EATIOXALISM.  271 

the  proportion  between  Anglicans  and  Dissenters,  to  the 
detriment  of  tlie  former ;  and  in  the  rapid  development  of 
continental  Protestantism  into  rationalism. 

The  dominating  cause  of  this  movement  is,  as  I  liave 
said,  to  be  found  mainly  in  that  process  of  education  which 
is  effected  by  the  totality  of  the  influences  of  education,  and 
which  produces  both  a  capacity  and  a  disposition  to  rise 
above  material  conceptions,  and  to  sublimate  all  portions  oT 
belief.  There  is,  however,  one  separate  branch  of  knowledge 
which  has  exercised  such  a  deep,  and  at  the  same  time  such 
a  distinct,  influence  upon  it,  that  it  requires  a  separate  notice. 
I  mean  the  progress  of  physical  science  modifying  our 
notions  of  the  o-overnment  of  the  universe. 

In  the  early  Church  the  interests  of  theology  were  too 
absorbing  to  leave  any  room  for  purely  secular  studies.  If 
scientific  theories  Avere  ever  discussed,  it  v-as  simply  with  a 
view  to  elucidating  some  theological  question,  and  the  con- 
troversy was  entirely  governed  by  the  existing  notions  of 
inspiration.  On  this  subject  two  doctrines  prevailed,  which 
did  not  by  any  means  exclude  each  other,  but  were  both 
somewhat  different  from  those  that  are  noAV  professed — one 
of  them  being  allegorical,  the  other  intensely  literal.  The 
first,  Avhich  had  been  extremely  popuhir  among  the  Jewish 
commentators,  rested  upon  the  belief,  that  besides  the  direct 
and  manifest  meaning  of  a  scriptural  narrative,  Avhich  was 
to  be  ascertained  by  the  ordinary  modes  of  exegesis,  there 
was  an  occult  meaning,  which  could  be  discovered  only  by 
the  eye  of  faith,  or  at  all  events  by  human  ingenuity  guided 
by  the  defined  doctrines  of  the  Church.  Thus,  while  the 
historian  was  apparently  relating  a  very  simple  narrative,  or 
enforcing  a  very  simple  truth,  his  real  and  primary  object 


272  EATIONALISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

might  be  to  unfold  some  Christian  mystery,  of  which  all  the 
natural  objects  he  mentioned  were  symbols. 

This  notion,  which  in  modern  times  has  been  systematised 
and  developed  -with  great  ingenuity  by  Swedenborg  in  his 
'  Doctrine  of  Correspondences,'  was  the  origin  of  many  of 
those  extremely  far-fetched,  and,  as  they  would  now  appear, 
absurd  interpretations  of  Scripture  that  are  so  numerous  in 
the  Fathers,  and  several  of  which  I  have  already  had  occa- 
sion to  notice.  Supposing  it  to  be  true,  a  very  important 
question  arose  concerning  the  comparative  authority  of  the 
historical  and  the  spiritual  meanings. 

Origen,  as  is  Avell  known,  made  the  principle  of  allegori- 
cal interpretation  the  basis  of  a  system  of  freethinking,  some- 
times of  the  boldest  character.  Manicho^ism  having  violently 
assailed  the  Mosaic  cosmogony,  he  cordially  accepted  the 
assault  as  far  as  it  was  directed  against  the  literal  interpreta- 
tion, turned  into  absolute  ridicule,  as  palj^able  fables,  the 
stories  of  the  serpent  and  the  trees  of  life  and  of  knowledge, 
and  contended  that  they  could  only  be  justified  as  allegories 
representing  spiritual  truths.^     Origen,  however,  verged  far 

^  See  Beausobre,  Hisi.  du  Manicheisme^  torn.  i.  pp.  286-288.  Barbeyrac, 
Morale  des  Peres,  ch.  vii.,  has  collected  a  number  of  wonderful  extravagances 
of  interpretation  into  which  the  love  of  allegory  led  Origen.  One  of  the  most 
curious  writings  of  the  ancient  Church  bearing  on  this  subject  has  been  lately 
printed  in  the  Spicilegium  Solcsmcnse  (curante  Dom.  J.  B.  Pitra).  It  is  the 
Clavis  of  St.  Melito,  who  was  bishop  of  Sardis,  it  is  said,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  second  century,  and  consists  of  a  catalogue  of  many  hundreds  of  birds, 
beasts,  plants,  and  minerals,  that  were  symbolical  of  Christian  virtues,  doctrines, 
and  personages. 

A  modern  High  Churchman  writes :  '  I  believe  that  a  geologist  deeply  im- 
pressed with  the  mystery  of  baptism — that  mystery  by  which  a  new  creature 
is  formed  by  means  of  water  and  fire — would  never  have  fallen  into  the  absur- 
dities  of  accounting  for  the  formation  of  the  globe  solely  by  water  or  solely 
by  fire.  He  would  not  have  maintained  a  A^ulcanian  or  a  Neptunian  theory. 
He  would  have  suspected  that  the  truth  lay  in  the  union  of  both,' — Sewell, 
Christian  Morals,  p.  323. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   EATIONT^LIS:,!.  273 

too  closely  upon  heresy  to  be  regared  as  a  represeDtative  of 
the  Church ;  and  tlie  prevailing  though  not  very  clearly  de- 
fined opinion  among  the  orthodox  seems  to  have  been,  that 
the  literal  and  the  allegorical  interpretations  should  be  both 
retained. 

Perhaps  the  clearest  illustration  of  this  doctrine  is  to  bo 
found  in  a  short  treatise  of  St.  Augustine  in  defence  of  Geu' 
esis  against  the  Manicha3ans,  which  is  very  remarkable  when 
we  remember  that  its  author  was  not  more  distinguished  for 
his  great  abilities  than  for  the  precision  and  logical  charac- 
ter of  liis  mind.  In  this  work,  St.  Augustine  reviews  and 
answers  at  length  the  objections  which  the  Manicha^ans  had 
brought  against  each  separate  portion  of  the  six  days'  work. 
Having  done  this,  he  proceeds  to  lay  down  the  principle,  that 
besides  the  literal  meaning,  there  was  a  spiritual  meaning 
which  was  veiled  in  the  form  of  allegory.  Thus  the  record 
of  the  six  days'  creation  contained,  not  merely  a  description 
of  the  first  formation  of  the  material  world,  but  also  a  pro- 
phetic sketch  of  the  epochs  into  which  the  history  of  man- 
kind was  to  be  divided  ;  the  sixth  day  being  the  Christian 
dispensation,  in  which  the  man  and  woman,  or  Christ  and 
the  Church,  were  to  appear  upon  earth. ^  Xor  did  it  fore- 
shadow less  clearly  the  successive  stages  of  the  Christian 
life.  First  of  all,  the  light  of  faith  streams  upon  the  mind 
which  is  still  immersed  in  the  waves  of  sin ;  then  the  firma- 
ment of  discipline  divides  things  carnal  from  things  spiritual ; 
then  the  regenerated  soul  is  raised  above  the  things  of  earth, 
and  prepared  for  the  production  of  virtue  ;  spiritual  intelli- 
gences rise  like  the  planets  in  their  various  orders  in  the 

^  The  Church  being  wedded  to  Christ,  '  bone  of  his  bone,  and  flesh  of  his 
flesh,'  that  is  to  say,  participating  ahke  of  his  strength  and  of  his  purity. 
{De  Genes'i^  contra  Ilanichceos,  lib.  i.  c.  23.) 
YOL.  I. — 18 


274  EATIOXALISM   JN   EUROPE. 

firmament  of  discipline,  good  works  spring  from  the  waves 
of  trial  as  the  fish  from  the  sea,  the  purified  mind  itself  pro- 
duces its  own  graces,  till,  sanctified  thought  being  wedded 
to  sanctified  action,  as  Eve  to  Adam,  the  soul  is  prepared  for 
its  coming  rest/  In  the  same  way,  Avhen  the  serpent  Avas 
condemned  to  creep  along  the  earth,  this  meant  that  tempta- 
tion comes  commonly  by  pride  and  sensuality."  '\^"hen  it 
was  condemned  to  eat  earth,  this  probably  signified  the  vice 
of  curiosity,  ^^lunging  into  the  unseen.  When  it  is  related 
that  there  was  a  tipie  when  no  rain  fell  upon  the  earth,  but 
that  a  mist,  rising  from  the  ground,  vratered  its  face,  this 
means  that  prophets  and  apostles  were  once  unnecessary,  for 
every  man  bore  the  spring  of  revelation  in  his  own  breast. 
The  literal  narrative  was  true,  and  so  was  the  spiritual  signi- 
fication ;  but  if  in  the  first  anything  was  found  which  could 
not  be  literally  interpreted  in  a  manner  consonant  either  with 
the  doctrines  of  the  Church  or  with  the  dignity  of  the  Crea- 
tor, the  passage  was  to  be  treated  as  an  enigma,  and  its  true 
purport  was  to  be  sought  in  the  spiritual  meaning.*  Some 
touches  of  description  were  inserted  solely  with  a  view  to 
that  meaning.  Thus,  when  in  the  summary  of  the  creation 
that  is  said  to  have  been  effected  in  one  day  which  was  really 
effected  in  six,  and  when  the  'green  herbs'  are  specially 
singled  out  among  created  things,  these  exj^ressions,  which, 
taken  literally,  would  be  pointless  or  inaccurate,  are  intended 
merely  to  direct  the  mind  to  j^articular  portions  of  the  alle- 
gory. 

Together  with  the  method  of  interpretation  laid  down  in 

^  Lib.  V.  cap,  25.  This  notion  of  marriage  representing  the  union  of  the 
Lwo  main  elements  of  hfe,  is  very  beautifully  developed  by  Swedenborg,  in  a 
oook  on  Conjugal  Affection. 

"^  The  chest  signifying  pride,  and  the  stomach  sensuality. 

*  Lib.  ii.  cap.  2, 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    RATIONALISM.  275 

tliis  and  in  other  works  of  tlie  early  Church,  there  was  an- 
other different,  though,  as  I  have  said,  not  necessarily  antag- 
onistic one,  of  an  intensely  literal  character.  Theologians 
were  accustomed  to  single  out  any  incidental  expressions 
that  might  be  applied  in  any  way  to  scientific  theories,  even 
thougli  they  were  simj^ly  the  metaphors  of  j^oetry  or  rhetoric, 
or  the  ordinary  phrases  of  common  conversation,  and  to 
interpret  them  as  authoritative  declarations,  superseding  all 
the  deductions  of  mere  worldly  science.  The  best  known 
example  of  this  is  to  be  found  in  those  who  condemned  the 
opinions  of  Galileo,  because  it  had  been  said  that  the  '  sun 
runneth  about  from  one  end  of  heaven  to  the  other,'  and 
that  '  the  foundations  of  the  earth  are  so  firmly  fixed  that 
they  cannot  be  moved.'  It  may  be  well,  however,  to  give  an 
illustration  of  an  earlier  date  of  the  extent  to  which  this 
mode  of  interpretation  was  carried. 

Among  the  very  few  scientific  questions  which  occupied 
a  considerable  amount  of  attention  in  the  early  Church,  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  was  that  concerning  tlie  existence  of  the 
Antipodes.  The  Manichgeans  had  chanced  to  stumble  on  the 
correct  doctrine,'  and  consequently  the  Fathers  opposed  it. 
Although,  however,  the  leaders  of  the  Church  were  appar- 
ently unanimous  in  denying  the  existence  of  the  Antipodes, 
it  appears  that  the  contrary  opinion  had  spread  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  among  the  less  noted  Christians,  and  some 
fear  was  entertained  lest  it  should  prov-e  a  new  heresy. 

About  the  year  a.d.  535,  in  the  reign  of  Justinian,  there 
was  living  in  a  monastery  of  Alexandiia  an  old  monk  named 
Cosmas,  to  whom  the  eyes  of  many  were  then  turned.  He 
had  been  in  his  youth  a  merchant,  and  in  that  profession  had 
travelled  much,  especially  in  the  regions  of  India  and  of 

^  Beausobre,  Ilist.  du  Manichelsme^  torn.  i.  p.  246. 


276  KATIONALISM   IN    EUEOPE. 

Ethioj^ia.  He  was  also  noticed  for  his  keen  and  inquisitive 
mind,  and  for  his  scientific  attainments,  and  since  he  had 
embraced  a  religious  life  he  had  devoted  himself  zealously  to 
the  relations  between  Scripture  and  science.  x\t  the  earnest 
request  of  some  of  the  theologians  of  his  time,  he  deter- 
mined, though  now  somewhat  broken  in  health,  and  suffer- 
ing especially,  as  he  tells  us,  from  *  a  certain  dryness  both  of 
the  eyes  and  of  the  stomach,'  to  emi^loy  the  remainder  of 
his  life  in  the  composition  of  a  great  work,  which  was  not 
only  to  refute  the  '  anile  fable '  of  the  Antipodes,  but  was  to 
form  a  complete  system  of  the  universe,  based  upon  the 
teaching  of  Revelation. 

This  book  is  called  the  'Topographia  Christiana,'  or 
'  Christian  Opinion  concerning  the  World.'  ^  Independently 
of  its  main  interest,  as  probably  the  most  elaborate  work  on 
the  connection  between  science  and  the  Bible  which  the  early 
Church  has  bequeathed  us,  it  is  extremely  curious  on  account 
of  its  many  digressions  concerniug  life  and  manners  in  the 
different  nations  Cosmas  had  visited.  It  opens  with  a  tone 
of  great  confidence.  It  is  '  a  Christian  topograj^hy  of  the 
universe,  established  by  demonstrations  from  Divine  Scrip- 
ture, concerning  which  it  is  not  lawful  for  a  Christian  to 
doubt.' '  In  a  similar  strain  the  writer  proceeds  to  censure 
with  great  severity  those  weak-minded  Christians  who  had 
allowed  the  subtleties  of  Greek  fables,  or  the  deceitful  glitter 
of  mere  human  science,  to  lead  them  astray,  forgetting  that 
Scripture  contained  intimations  of  the  nature  of  the  universe 
of  flir  higher  value  and  authority  than  any  to  wliicli   un- 

^  This  work  is  published  in  the  Benedictine  edition  of  the  Greek  Fathers 
(Paris,  1V06),  torn.  ii.  I  have  quoted  the  Benedictine  Latin  translation.  In 
his  prefiice,  Montfaucon  has  collected  a  long  chain  of  passages  from  the 
Fathers  denying  the  existence  of  the  Antipodes. 

"  Lib.  i.  prologus  2. 


DEVELOPMENTS   OF   EATIONALISM.  277 

assisted  man  could  attain,  and  seeking  to  frame  their  concep- 
tions simply  by  the  deductions  of  their  reason.  Such,  Cos- 
mas  assures  us,  is  not  the  course  he  would  pursue.  '  To  the 
law  and  to  the  testimony '  was  his  appeal,  and  he  doubted  not 
that  he  could  evolve  from  their  pages  a  system  far  more  cor- 
rect than  any  that  pagan  wisdom  could  attain. 

The  system  of  the  universe  of  whicl]  remarks  to  this  effect 
form  the  prelude  may  be  briefly  stated.  According  to  Cos- 
mas,  the  world  is  a  flat  parallelogram.  Its  length,  which 
should  be  measured  from  east  to  west,  is  the  double  of  its 
breadtli,  wliich  should  be  measured  from  north  to  south.  In 
the  centre  is  the  earth  we  inhabit,  which  is  surrounded  by 
the  ocean,  and  this  again  is  encircled  by  another  earth,  in 
which  men  lived  before  the  deluge,  and  from  which  Xoah 
was  transported  in  the  ark.  To  the  north  of  tlie  world  is  a 
high  conical  mountain,  around  which  the  sun  and  moon  con- 
tinually revolve.  When  the  sun  is  hid  behind  the  moun- 
tain, it  is  night ;  when  it  is  on  our  side  of  the  mountain,  it  is 
day.  To  the  edges  of  the  outer  earth  the  sky  is  glued.  It 
consists  of  four  high  walls  rising  to  a  great  height  and  then 
meeting  in  a  vast  concave  roof,  thus  forming  an  immense 
edifice  of  which  our  world  is  tlie  floor.  This  edifice  is  divided 
into  two  stories  by  the  firmament  which  is  placed  between 
the  earth  and  the  roof  of  the  sky.  A  great  ocean  is  inserted 
in  the  side  of  the  firmament  remote  from  the  earth.  This  is 
what  is  signified  by  the  waters  that  are  above  the  firmament. 
The  space  from  these  waters  to  the  roof  of  the  sky  is  allotted 
to  the  blest ;  that  from  the  firmament  to  our  earth  to  the 
angels,  in  their  character  of  ministering  spirits. 

The  reader  will  probably  not  regard  these  opinions  as 
prodigies  of  scientific  wisdom ;  but  the  point  with  which  we 
are  especially  concerned  is  the  manner  they  were  arrived  at. 


278  NATIONALISM   IN    EUEOPE. 

In  order  to  show  this,  it  will  be  necessary  to  give  a  few  sam- 
ples of  the  arguments  of  Cosmas. 

In  the  account  of  the  six  days'  creation,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered the  whole  work  is  summed  up  in  a  single  sentence, 
'  This  is  the  book  of  the  generation  of  the  heaven  and  the 
earth.'  These  expressions  are  evidently  intended  to  com- 
prise everything  that  is  contained  in  the  heaven  and  the 
earth.  But,  as  Cosmas  contended,  if  the  doctrine  of  the  An- 
tipodes were  correct,  the  sky  would  surround  and  conse- 
quently contain  the  earth,  and  therefore  it  would  only  be 
said,  '  This  is  the  book  of  the  generation  of  the  sky.'  ^  This 
very  simple  argument  was  capable  of  great  extension,  for 
there  was  scarcely  any  sacred  writer  who  had  not  employed 
the  phrase  Hhe  heaven  and  the  earth'  to  include  the  whole 
creation,  and  who  had  not  thus  implied  that  one  of  them  did 
not  include  the  other.  Abraham,  David,  Hosea,  Isaiah,  Zach- 
ariah,  and  many  others,  were  cited.  Even  Melchisedec  had 
thus  uttered  his  testimony  against  the  Antipodes.  If  we  ex- 
amine the  subject  a  little  further,  we  are  told  that  the  earth 
is  fixed  firmly  upon  its  foundations,  from  which  we  may  at 
least  infer  that  it  is  not  suspended  in  the  air ;  and  we  are 
told  by  St.  Paul,  that  all  men  are  made  to  live  upon  the  '  face 
of  the  earth,'  from  which  it  clearly  follows  that  they  do  not 
live  upon  more  faces  than  one,  or  upon  the  back.  With  such 
a  passage  before  his  eyes,  a  Christian,  w^e  are  told,  should  not 
'even  speak  of  the  Antipodes.' 

Such  arguments  might  be  considered  a  conclusive  demon- 
stration of  the  falseness  of  the  Manichsean  doctrine.     It  re- 

^  'Ait,  "Hie  est  liber  generationis  coeli  ct  terra?,"  quasi  omnia  iis  con- 
tineantur,  et  universa  quae  iu  cis  sunt  cum  illis  significentur.  Nam  si  secim- 
dum  fucatos  illos  Christianos  coelum  tantumraodo  universa  contineat,  terram 
cum  ccclo  non  nominasset,  scd  dixisset  "  Hie  est  liber  generationis  coeli." ' 
(P.  126.) 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   RATIOXxiLISM.  279 

maiued  to  frame  a  correct  theory  to  fill  its  place.  The  first 
great  pomt  of  illummation  that  meets  us  m  this  task,  consists 
in  the  fact  that  St.  Paul  more  than  once  speaks  of  the  earth 
as  a  tabernacle.  From  this  comparison  some  theologians,  and 
Cosmas  among  the  number,  inferred  that  the  tabernacle  of 
Moses  Ava«  ar.  exact  image  of  our  world.  This  being  ad- 
mitted, the  paths  of  science  were  greatly  simplified.  The 
tabernacle  was  a  parallelogram  twice  as  long  from  east  to 
west  as  from  north  to  south,  and  covered  over  as  a  room. 
Two  remarkable  passages,  mistranslated  in  the  Se2:)tuagint, 
in  one  of  which  Isaiah  is  made  to  compare  the  heavens  to  a 
vault,  and  in  the  other  of  which  Job  speaks  of  the  sky  as 
glued  to  the  earth,  completed  the  argument,^  and  enabled 
the  writer  to  state  it  almost  with  the  authority  of  an  article 
of  faith.' 

It  is  easy  to  perceive  how  fatal  such  systems  of  interpre- 
tation must  have  been  to  scientific  progress.  It  is  indeed 
true  that  Cosmas  belongs  to  a  period  when  the  intellectual 
decadence  was  already  begun,  that  he  was  himself  a  writer 
of  no  very  great  abilities,  and  that  some  of  the  more  eminent 
Fathers  had  treated  the  subject  of  the  Antipodes  with  con- 
siderable good  sense,. contending  that  it  was  not  a  matter 
connected  with  salvation."  But  still,  from  the  very  begin- 
ning, the  principles  of  which  this  book  forms  an  extreme  ex- 

^  These  were  Isaiah  xl.  22,  and  Job  xxxviii.  38.  The  first  was  translated 
'  Qui  statuit  coelum  sicut  forniccm.'  The  second,  '  Coelum  autem  in  terrain 
inelinavit,  cffusa  est  vero  sicut  terra,  calx,  conglutinavi  autem  ipsum  quasi  lapi- 
dem  quadrura.' 

^  '  Sic  igitur  et  nos  quemadmodum  Uesaias  figuram  primi  coeli  prima  die 
conditi  cum  terra  facti,  cum  terra  universum  complectcntis  ad  fornicis  figuram 
adornati  statuimus  esse.  Ac  qucmadmodum  in  Job  dictum  est  coelum  con- 
glutinatum  esse  terra?,  ita  quoque  nos  dicimus.  Itemque  cum  ex  Moyse  didi- 
ccrimus  terram  magis  quoad  longitudinem  extendi,  id  "nos  quod  fatemur  gnari, 
scilicet  Scripturro  divina}  crcdenduin.'     (P.  120.) 

'  This  very  liberal  opinion  had  been  expressed  by  Basil  and  Ambrose. 


280  EATIONALISM    IN    EUEOPE. 

ample  were  floating  through  the  Church.  The  distinction 
between  theology  and  science  was  entirely  unfelt.  The 
broad  truth  which  repeated  experience  has  now  impressed 
on  almost  every  unprejudiced  student,  that  it  is  perfectly 
idle  to  quote  a  passage  from  the  Bible  as  a  refutation  of  any 
discovery  of  scientific  men,  or  to  go  to  the  Bible  for  informa- 
tion on  any  scientific  subject,  was  altogether  undreamed  of;  ^ 
and  in  exact  proportion  to  the  increase  of  Euroj^ean  super- 
stition did  the  doctrine  of  inspiration  dilate,  till  it  crushed 
every  department  of  the  human  intellect.  Thus,  when  in 
the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  an  Irish  saint,  named  St. 
Yirgilius,  who  was  one  of  the  very  few  men  who  then  culti- 
vated profane  sciences,  ventured  in  Bavaria  to  assert  the 
existence  of  the  Antipodes,  the  whole  religious  world  was 
thrown  into  a  paroxysm  of  indignation,  St.  Boniface  heading 
the  attack,  and  Pope  Zachary,  at  least  for  a  time,  encouraging 
it.  At  last  men  sailed  for  the  Antipodes,  and  they  then 
modified  their  theological  opinions  on  the  subject.  But  a 
precisely  similar  contest  recurred  when  the  Copernican  sys- 
tem was  promulgated.     Although  the  discovery  of  Coj^erni- 

^  This  doctrine  began  to  dawn  upon  a  few  minds  during  the  Copernican 
controversy.  Those  who  desire  to  trace  its  history  may  read  with  interest 
Bome  opinions  on  the  subject  that  were  collected  and  answered  by  a  contem- 
porary writer  on  the  question  between  Galileo  and  the  Church  ^^juibertus  Fro- 
mundus,  Vesta,  Hive  Anti-AristarcJii  Vindex:  Antverpias,  1634).  As  I  shall 
have  occasion  again  to  quote  Fromundus,  I  may  mention  that  he  was  a  pro- 
fessor and  doctor  of  theology  at  Lou  vain ;  that  he  was  the  author  of  a  work 
on  meteorology,  in  which  he  combated  very  forcibly  the  notion  that  atmospheric 
changes  were  the  results  of  spiritual  intervention,  which  Bodin  had  lately  been 
defending ;  and  that  he  was  on  the  whole  by  no  means  a  superstitious  man, 
except  on  the  subject  of  comets,  of  the  prophetic  character  of  which  he  was, 
I  believe,  a  strenuous  advocate.  He  wrote,  in  conjunction  with  a  theologian 
named  Fieni,  a  book  about  comets,  which  I  have  never  been  fortunate  enough 
to  meet  with.  He  was  one  of  the  principal  defenders  of  the  immobility  of  the 
earth,  and  his  works  are  full  of  curious  information  on  the  theological  aspect 
of  the  subject.     He  died  in  1653. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    KATIOXALTSM.  281 

curi  was  at  first  uncensured,  and  his  book — which  was  pub 
lished  in  1543 — dedicated  to  Pope  Paul  III.,  as  soon  as  its 
views  had  acquired  some  weight  among  the  learned,  the  sus- 
picions of  the  Roman  theologians  were  aroused,  and  the 
opinion  of  the  motion  of  the  earth  was  authoritatively  cen- 
sured, first  of  all  in  the  persons  of  Copernicus  and  two  of  liis 
disciples,^  and  seventeen  years  later  in  the  condemnation  and 
imprisonment  of  Galileo. 

It  is,  indeed,  marvellous  that  science  should  ever  have 
revived  amid  the  fearful  obstacles  theologians  cast  in  her 
way.  Together  with  a  system  of  biblical  interpretation  so 
stringent,  and  at  the  same  time  so  capricious,  that  it  infalli- 
bly came  into  collision,  with  every  discovery  that  was  not  in 
accordance  with  the  unaided  judgments  of  the  senses,  and 
therefore  with  the  familiar  expressions  of  the  Jewish  writers, 
everything  was  done  to  cultivate  a  habit  of  thought  the  di- 

^  The  first  condemnation  was  in  IGIG,  and  was  provoked  by  the  book  of  a 
Carmelite,  named  Foscariui,  in  defence  of  the  Copernican  view.  The  cardinals 
of  the  Congregation  of  the  Index,  whose  function  it  is  to  pronounce  authorita- 
tively in  the  name  of  the  Church  on  the  orthodoxy  of  new  books,  then  issued 
a  decree,  of  which  the  following  is  the  principal  part : — '  Quia  ad  notitiam 
Sancta)  Congregationis  pervenit  falsam  illam  doctrinam  Pythagoricam,  divinoe- 
que  Scriptura3  omnino  adversantera,  de  mobilitate  terrac  et  immobilitate  solis, 
quam  Nicolaus  Copernicus  Revolutionihus  orhmm  ccelestium,  et  Didacus  Astu- 
nica  in  Job,  etiara  decent,  jam  divulgari  et  multis  recipi,  sicuti  videre  est  ex 
quadam  epistola,  imprcssa  cujusdam  P.  Carmelitfe,  cujus  titulus  Lettera  del  R. 
P.  Maestro  Paolo  Foscarini  sopra  V  Opmione  cV  i  Pijtharjorid  e  del  Copcrnico^ 
&c.,  in  qua  dictus  pater  ostendere  conatur  praifatam  doctrinam  de  immobilitate 
Bolis  in  ceutro  mundi  et  mobilitate  terra?  consonam  esse  veritati,  et  non  adver- 
sari  Sacra3  Scriptumc :  idco,  ne  ulterius  hujusmodi  opinio  in  perniciem  Catho- 
lica3  veritatis  serpat,  censuit  dictos  hie  Copernicum  de  Eevolut.  Orhium  et 
Didacum  Astunicam  in  Job  suspendendos  esse  donee  corrigantur.  Librum 
vero  P.  PauUi  Foscarini  Carmelita3  omnino  prohibendum,  atquc  omnes  alios 
libros  pariter  idem  docentes  prohibendos.' — Fromundus,  Anti-Aristarclms,  sive 
Orbis  Terror  immobilis.  In  quo  Decretum  S.  Congregationis  S.  E.  E.  Cardi- 
nal. 1616  adversus  Pijthagorico-Copernicanos  edition  defcnditur  (Antverpice, 
1631),  p.  18 


282  EATIOXALISM   IX    EUEOPE. 

rect  oi^posite  of  tlie  habits  of  science.  The  constant  exalta- 
tion of  blind  faith,  the  countless  miracles,  the  childish  le- 
gends, all  produced  a  condition  of  besotted  ignorance,  of 
grovelling  and  trembling  credulity,  that  can  scarcely  be 
paralleled  except  among  the  most  degraded  barbarians. 
Innovation  of  every  kind  was  regarded  as  a  crime  ;  superior 
knowledge  excited  only  terror  and  suspicion.  If  it  was 
shown  in  speculation,  it  was  called  heresy.  If  it  was  shown 
in  the  study  of  nature,  it  was  called  magic.  The  dignity  of 
the  Popedom  was  unable  to  save  Gerbert  from  the  reputa- 
tion of  a  magician,^  and  the  magnificent  labours  of  Roger 
Bac-on  were  repaid  by  fourteen  years  of  imprisonment,  and 
many  others  of  less  severe  but  unremitting  persecution. 
Added  to  all  this,  the  overwhelming  importance  attached  to 
theology  diverted  to  it  all  those  intellects  which  in  another 
condition  of  society  vfould  have  been  employed  in  the  inves- 
tigations of  science.  "When  Lord  Bacon  was  drawing  his 
great  chart  of  the  field  of  knowledge,  his  attention  was 

^  Sylvester  II.  He  was  the  first  Frenchman  who  sat  on  the  throne  of  Peter, 
the  reputed  author  of  Gallican  opinions,  and  it  is  said  the  ablest  mathema- 
tician and  mechanician  of  his  time.  He  died  1003.  Among  other  things,  he 
invented  a  kind  of  clock.  He  had  also  a  statue,  like  that  of  Roger  Bacon, 
which  answered  all  his  questions.  According  to  the  popular  legend,  he  was  in 
communion  with  the  devil,  who  raised  him  successively  to  the  sees  of  Eheims, 
Ravenna,  and  Rome ;  and  promised  that  he  should  never  die  till  he  had  been 
at  Jerusalem,  which  Gerbert  construed  as  a  promise  of  immortality.  But,  like 
that  made  to  Henry  IV.  of  England,  it  proved  to  be  a  cheat,  and  the  Pope  felt 
the  hand  of  death  upon  him  while  officiating  in  the  Chapel  of  Jerusalem,  in 
the  Basilica  of  St.  Croce.  The  legend  goes  on  to  say  that,  struck  by  remorse, 
he  ordered  his  body  to  be  cut  in  pieces,  to  be  placed  on  a  car  drawn  by  oxen, 
and  to  be  buried  wherever  they  stopped  of  themselves,  he  being  unworthy  to 
rest  in  the  church  of  God.  But,  to  show  that  pardon  may  be  extended  even 
to  the  most  guilty,  the  oxen  stopped  at  the  door  of  the  Lateran.  Whenever, 
it  is  said,  a  pope  is  about  to  die,  the  tomb  of  Sylvester  grows  moist,  and  the 
bones  of  the  old  magician  clatter  below.  (See  Grcgorovius,  On  the  Tomhs  of  (lie 
Popes  3  and  the  origiu.'^J  account  in  Matthew  of  Westminster  anno  998.) 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    EATIOXALISM.  2S3 

forcibly  drawn  to  the  torpor  of  the  middle  ages.  That  the 
mind  of  man  should  so  long  have  remained  tranced  and 
numbed,  seemed,  at  first  sight,  an  objection  to  his  theories, 
a  contradiction  to  his  high  estimate  of  human  faculties.  But 
his  answer  was  prompt  and  decisive.  A  theological  system 
had  lain  like  an  incubus  upon  Christendom,  and  to  its  influ- 
ence, more  than  to  any  other  single  cause,  the  universal  pa- 
ralysis is  to  be  ascribed.^ 

At  last  the  revival  of  learning  came,  the  regeneration  of 
physical  science  speedily  followed  it,  and  it  soon  effected  a 
series  of  most  important  revolutions  in  our  conceptions. 

The  first  of  these  w^as  to  shake  the  old  view  of  the  posi- 
tion of  man  in  the  universe.  To  an  uncivilised  man,  no 
proposition  appears  more  self-evident  than  that  our  world  is 
the  great  central  object  of  the  universe.  Around  it  the  sun 
and  moon  appear  alike  to  revolve,  and  the  stars  seem  but  in- 
considerable lights  destined  to  garnish  its  firmament.  From 
this  conception  there  naturally  followed  a  crowd  of  super- 
stitions Avhicb  occupy  a  conspicuous  place  in  the  belief  of 
every  early  civilisation.  Man  being  the  centre  of  all  things, 
every  startling  plienomenon  has  some  bearing  upon  his  acts. 
The  eclipse,  the  comet,  the  meteor,  and  the  temj^est,  are  all 
intended  for  him.  The  whole  history  of  the  universe  centres 
upon  him,  and  all  the  dislocations  and  perturbations  it  ex- 
hibits are  connected  with  his  history.^ 

The  science  which  especially  corrects  these  notions  is  as- 
tronomy, but  for  a  considerable  j)eriod  it  rather  aggravated 
them,  for  it  was  at  first  inseparably  blended  with  astrology. 

*  Kovum  Organon. 

^  Even  the  sun  and  stars  were  supposed  to  shine  with  a  feebler  light  since 
the  Fall  (St.  Isidore,  De  Ordine  Crcaturarum,  cap.  v.).  On  the  effects  of 
man's  sin  on  the  vegetable  world,  see  St.  Augustine,  Be  Gcnesi,  lib.  i,  cao.  13. 


284:  EATIOX^SXISM   IX    EUEOPE. 

It  is  an  extremely  ingenious  and,  at  least  as  far  as  the  period 
of  the  revival  of  learning  is  concerned,  an  extremely  just 
observation  of  M.  Comte,  that  this  last  study  marks  the  first 
systematic  effort  to  frame  a  philosophy  of  history  by  re- 
ducing the  apparently  capricious  phenomena  of  human  ac- 
tions within  the  domain  of  law/  It  may,  however,  I  think, 
be  no  less  justly  regarded  as  one  of  the  last  struggles  of 
human  egotism  against  the  depressing  sense  of  insignificance 
which  the  immensity  of  the  universe  must  produce.  And 
certainly  it  would  be  difiicult  to  imagine  any  conception 
more  calculated  to  exalt  the  dignity  of  man  than  one  which 
represents  the  career  of  each  individual  as  linked  with  the 
march  of  worlds,  the  focus  towards  which  the  influences  of 
the  most  sublime  of  created  things  continually  converge/ 
But,  notwithstanding  this  temporary  aberration,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  of  the  eventual  tendency  of  a  science  which 
proves  that  our  world  is  but  an  infinitesimal  fraction  in  crea- 
tion, and  which,  by  demonstrating  its  motion,  shows  that  it 
is  as  undistinguished  by  its  j)osition  as  by  its  magnitude. 
The  mental  importance  of  such  a  discovery  can  hardly  be 
overrated.     Those  who  regard  our  earth  as  the  centre  of  the 

^  I  have  already  mentioned  the  bold  attempt  of  Peter  of  Apono,  in  the 
beginnmg  of  the  fourteenth  conturj,  to  construct,  by  the  aid  of  astrology,  a 
philosophy  of  religions.  Cardan,  too,  cast  the  horoscope  of  Christ,  and 
declared  that  all  the  fortunes  of  Christianity  were  predicted  by  the  stars. 
Vanini  adopted  a  somewhat  similar  view.  (Durand,  Vie  de  Va7iini,  pp.  93- 
99.)  Pomponazzi  attempted  to  explain  the  phenomena  of  magic  by  the  influ- 
ence of  the  stars  {Biog.  Univ.,  art.  Pomponazzi) ;  and  Bodin,  in  the  very 
greatest  political  work  of  the  sixteenth  century,  having  raised  the  question 
whether  it  is  possible  to  discover  any  principle  of  order  presiding  over  the 
development  of  societies,  maintains  that  such  a  principle  can  only  be  revealed 
by  astrology.     {RipubUque,  liv.  iv.  c.  2.) 

"^  As  a  poet  expresses  it : — 

'  The  warrior's  fate  is  blazoned  in  the  skies  ; 
A  world  is  darkened  when  a  hero  dies,' 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   RATIONALISM.  285 

material  Tiniverse  will  always  attribute  to  it  a  similar  po- 
sition in  the  moral  scheme ;  and  when  the  falsehood  of  the 
first  position  is  demonstrated,  the  second  appears  incon- 
gruous or  a  difficulty/ 

It  has  been  reserved  for  the  present  century  and  for  a 
new  science  to  su^^plement  the  discovery  of  Co^Dernicus  and 
Galileo  by  another  which  has  not  yet  been  fully  realised, 
but  is  no  doubt  destined  to  exercise  a  commanding  influence 
OA^er  all  future  systems  of  belief:  I  mean  the  discoveries  of 
geology  relating  to  the  preadamite  history  of  the  globe. 
To  those  who  regard  the  indefinite  as  the  highest  conception 
of  the  infinite,  the  revelation  of  eternity  is  written  on  the 
rocks,  as  the  revelation  of  immensity  ujjon  the  stars.  But 
to  more  scientific  minds  the  most  important  efiect  of  geology 
has  not  been  that  it  throws  back  to  an  incalculable  distance 
the  horizon  of  creation,  nor  yet  that  it  has  renovated  and 
transformed  all  the  early  interpretations  of  the  Mosaic  cos- 
mogony ;  but  that  it  has  conclusively  disproved  what  was 
once  the  universal  belief  concerning  the  origin  of  death. 
That  this  fearful  calamity  appeared  in  the  universe  on  ac- 
count of  the  transgression  of  man,  that  every  pang  that  con- 
vulses the  frame  of  any  created  being,  every  passion  or  in- 

^  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  its  justice,  there  cannot  be  two  opinions 
about  the  exquisite  beauty  of  the  suggestion  by  which  Dr.  Chalmers  sought  to 
meet  this  difficulty — that  the  parable  of  the  shepherd  leaving  the  ninety-nine 
eheep  to  seek  that  which  had  gone  astray,  is  but  a  description  of  the  act  of 
the  Deity  seeking  to  reclaim  the  single  world  that  had  revolted  against  Him,  as 
though  it  were  of  more  importance  than  all  that  remained  faithful.  It  may  bo 
added  that  astronomy  itself  furnishes  a  striking  illustration  of  the  danger  of 
trusting  too  implicitly  to  our  notions  of  the  fitness  of  things.  The  ancient 
astronomers  unanimously  maintained  that  the  motions  of  the  celestial  bodies 
must  necessarily  be  circular  and  uniform,  because  they  regarded  that  as  tho 
most  perfect  kind  of  movement ;  and  the  persistence  with  which  this  notion 
was  held,  till  it  was  overthro\Mi  by  Kepler,  was  one  of  the  chief  obstacles  to,^ 
astronomical  progress. 


286  RATIONALISM   EST   EUEOPE. 

stinct  or  necessity  that  contributes  to  the  infliction  of  suffer- 
ing, is  but  the  fruit  of  the  disobedience  in  Paradise,  was 
long  believed  with  unfaltering  assurance,  and  is  even  now 
held  by  many  who  cannot  be  regarded  as  altogether  unedu- 
cated. And  this  general  proposition  became  a  great  arche 
type,  a  centre  around  which  countless  congenial  beliefs  were 
formed,  a  first  principle  or  measure  of  2:)robability  guiding 
the  predispositions  of  men  in  all  their  enquiries.  If  all  death 
and  all  jDain  resulted  from  the  sin  of  Adam,  it  was  natural  to 
give  every  particular  instance  of  death  or  pain  a  special  sig- 
nification ;  and  if  tli^ese  the  greatest  of  terrestrial  imperfec- 
tions were  connected  with  the  history  of  man,  it  was  natural 
to  believe  that  all  minor  evils  were  no  less  so.  But  geology 
has  now  proved  decisively  that  a  profound  error  lurks  in 
these  conclusions.  It  has  proved  that  countless  ages  before 
man  trod  this  earth  death  raged  and  revelled  among  its  oc- 
cupants ;  that  it  so  entered  into  the  original  constitution  of 
things,  that  the  agony  and  the  infirmity  it  implies  were 
known  as  at  present  when  the  mastodon  and  the  dinotherium 
were  the  rulers  of  the  world.  To  deny  this  is  now  impossi- 
ble :  to  admit  it  is  to  abandon  one  of  the  root-doctrines  of 
the  past. 

A  second  kind  of  influence  Avhich  scientific  discoveries 
have  exercised  ujDon  belief,  has  been  the  gradual  substitution 
of  the  conception  of  law  for  that  of  suiDcrnatural  interven- 
tion. This  substitution  I  have  already  had  occasion  to  refer 
to  more  than  once ;  but  I  trust  the  reader  will  pardon  me  for 
reverting  to  it  for  a  moment,  in  order  to  show  with  more  pre- 
cision than  I  have  hitherto  done  the  extent  and  nature  of  the 
change.  It  is  the  especial  characteristic  of  uncivihscd  men 
that  their  curiosity  and,  still  more,  their  religious  sentiments, 
arc  very  rarely  excited  by  those  phenomena  which  fall  ob- 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   RATIOXALISM.  287 

viously  within  the  range  of  natural  laws,  while  they  are 
keenly  affected  by  all  which  appear  ahnormal.  It  is  indeed 
true  that  this  expression  '  natural  law  '  has  to  the  uncivilised 
man  only  a  very  vague  and  fiiint  signification,  that  he  has 
no  conception  of  the  close  connection  subsisting  betvv'ccn  dif- 
ferent classes  of  phenomena,  and  that  he  frequently  attrib- 
utes each  department  even  of  those  which  are  most  regular 
to  the  action  of  special  presiding  spirits ;  yet  still  certain 
phenomena  are  recognised  as  taking  jilace  in  regular  se- 
quences, Avhile  others  appear  caj^ricious,  and  the  latter  are 
associated  especiall;^  with  Divine  intervention.  Thus  comets, 
meteors,  and  atmospheric  jDhenomena  were  connected  with 
religious  ideas  long  after  the  sun  and  the  stars.  Thus,  tooj' 
games  of  chance  w^ere  from  a  very  early  period  prohibited, 
not  simply  on  account  of  the  many  evils  that  result  from 
them,  but  as  a  species  of  blasphemy,  being  an  apjjeal  on 
trivial  matters  to  the  adjudication  of  the  Deity.'  Man  being- 
unable  to  calculate  how  the  die  will  fall,  it  was  believed  that 
this  is  determined  by  a  Divine  interposition,  and  accordingly 
the  casting  of  lots  became  one  of  the  favourite  means  of  ap- 
proaching the  Deity.^ 

From  this  habit  of  associating  religious  feelings  chiefly 
with  the  abnormal,  two  very  important  consequences  ensued, 
one  of  them  relating  to  science  and  the  otlier  to  tlieology. 
In  the  first  place,  as  long  as  abnormal  and  capricious  phe- 

^  See  a  clear  view  of  the  old  opiuions  on  this  subject  in  Barbejrac,  De  la 
Nature  du  Sort  (Amsterdam,  1714),  who  sustained  an  ardent  controversy  on 
the  subject  with  a  Dutch  divine.  The  first  writer,  I  believe,  who  clearly  and 
systematically  maintained  that  lots  were  governed  by  purely  natural  laws,  was 
an  English  Puritan  minister  named  Gataker,  in  a  work  On  the  Nature  and  Use 
of  Different  Kinds  of  Lots  (London,  1G19) — a  well-reasoned  and  curious 
book,  teeming  with  quaint  learning. 

'■^  Hence  the  term  '  sortcs '  was  applied  to  oracles.  Hence,  too,  such  worda 
as  '  sorteligi,'  *  sorcerers.' 


28  8  RATIONALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

nomena  are  deemed  the  direct  acts  of  the  Deity,  all  attempts 
to  explain  them  by  science  will  he  discouraged;  for  such  at- 
tempts must  appear  an  irreverent  prying  into  the  Divine 
acts,  and,  if  successful,  they  diminish  the  sources  of  religious 
emotion.^  In  the  second  place,  it  is  evident  that  the  concep 
tion  of  the  Deity  in  an  early  period  of  civilisation  must  be 
essentially  different  from  that  in  a  later  period.  The  con- 
sciousness of  the  Divine  presence  in  an  unscientific  age  is 
identified  with  the  idea  of  abnormal  and  capricious  action ; 
in  a  scientific  age  Avith  that  of  regular  and  unbroken  law. 
The  forms  of  religious  emotions  being  wholly  different,  the 
conceptions  of  the  Deity  around  which  they  centre  must  be 
equally  so.  The  one  conception  consists  mainly  of  the  ideas 
of  interference,  of  miracle,  of  change,  and  of  caprice ;  the 
other  of  regularity,  of  immutability,  and  of  prescience.  The 
one  conception  predisposes  most  to  prayer,  the  other  to  rev- 
erence and  admiration. 

The  first  science  that  rose  to  perfection  at  the  period  I 
am  referring  to  was  astronomy,  which  early  attained  a  great 
prominence  on  account  of  the  revival  of  astrology  that  had 
been  produced  in  the  fourteenth  century  by  the  renewed 
study  of  the  works  of  pagan  antiquit}^,  and  perhaps  still 
more  by  the  profound  influence  the  Arabian  intellect  then 
exercised  on  Christendom.  The  great  work  of  Copernicus, 
the  almost  simultaneous  appearance  of  Kepler,  Galileo,  and 

^  Thus  De  Maistre,  speaking  of  the  ancients,  says :— '  Leur  physique  est  h. 
pen  pves  nulle.  Car  non  seulemont  ils  n'attachaient  aucun  prix  aux  experi- 
ences physiques,  mais  ils  les  meprisaicnt,  et  meme  ils  attachaient  je  ne  sais 
quel  legere  idee  d'impiete  ;  et  ce  smthncnt  confus  vcnait  de  Men  hauV 
(Soirees  de  St.  Petershourg,  5me  entretien.)  This  is  the  true  spirit  of  supersti- 
tion. Speaking  of  earthquakes,  Cosmas  says  :— *  Quod  vero  terra  movcatur  id 
non  a  vento  fieri  dicimus ;  non  enim  fabulas  comminiscimur  ut  illi,  sed  illud 
jussu  Dei  fieri  pronuntiamus,  nee  curiose  remperquirimiis,  ait  quippe  Scriptura 
per  Davidem,  "  Qui  respicit  terram  et  facit  earn  tremcre,"  &c,' — n.  115 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   KATIOXxiLISLi.  2S9 

Tyclio  Bralie,  and  the  invention  and  rapid  improvement  of 
the  telescope,  soon  introduced  the  conception  of  natural  law 
into  what  had  long  been  the  special  realm  of  superstition. 
The  Theory  of  Yortices  of  Descartes,  although  it  is  now 
known  to  have  no  scientific  value,  had,  as  has  heen  truly 
said,  a  mental  value  of  the  very  highest  order,  for  it  was  the 
first  attempt  to  form  a  system  of  the  universe  by  natural 
law  and  without  the  intervention  of  spiritual  agents.^  Pre- 
viously the  different  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies  had  been 
for  the  most  part  looked  upon  as  isolated,  and  the  popular 
belief  was  that  they  as  well  as  all  atmospheric  changes  were 
effected  by  angels.-  In  the  Talmud  a  special  angel  was  as- 
signed to  every  star  and  to  every  element,  and  similar  no- 
tions were  general  throughout  the  middle  ages.^  The  belief 
in  the  existence  of  a  multitude  of  isolated  and  capricious 
phenomena  naturally  suggested  the  belief  in  angels  to  ac- 
count for  them ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  the  association  of 
angels  with  phenomena  that  obtruded  themselves  constantly 
on  the  attention  produced  a  vivid  sense  of  angelic  presence, 
which  was  shown  in  countless  legends  of  angelic  manifesta- 
tions. All  this  passed  away  before  the  genius  of  Descartes? 
and  of  Xewton.  The  reimi  of  lavf  was  recoornised  as  sii- 
preme,  and  the  conceptions  that  grew  out  of  the  earlier  no- 
tion of  the  celestial  system  waned  and  vanished. 

For  a  long  time,  however,  comets  continued  to  be  the 


^  This  was  originally  a  remark  of  St.  Simon,  but  it  has  been  adopted  and 
made  great  use  of  by  M.  Comte  and  some  of  his  disciples.  See  that  very  able 
book,  Littre,  Vie  de  Comte. 

^  Roceamora,  De  ComcHs,  p.  17;  St.  Isidore,  De  Ordlne  Crcatiirarum. 

^  Maury,  Legendes  Fieuses,  pp.  lY-18.    Angols  were  sometimes  represented 
in  old  Christian  painting  and  sculpture  bearing  along  the  stars  (and  especially 
the  Star  of  Bethlehem)  in  their  hands.     See,  e.  g.,  a  very  curious  old  baa 
relief  round  the  choir  of  Notre  Dame  at  Paris. 
VOL.  I. — 19 


290  EATION^VI^ISM   IN    EUROPE. 

reliige  of  the  dying  superstition.  Their  rarity,  the  eccen« 
tricity  of  their  course,  the  difficulty  of  ascertaining  their 
nature,  and  the  grandeur  and  terror  of  their  aspect,  had  all 
contributed  to  impress  men  with  an  extraordinary  sense  of 
their  supernatural  character.  From  the  earliest  ages  they 
had  heen  regarded  as  the  precursors  of  calamity,  and  men 
being  accustomed  to  regard  them  in  that  light,  a  Tast  mass 
of  evidence  was  soon  accumulated  in  support  of  the  belief. 
It  was  shown  that  comets  had  preceded  the  death  of  such 
rulers  as  Caesar,  or  Constantine  the  Great,  or  Charles  Y. 
Comets  were  known  to  have  appeared  before  the  invasion  of 
Greece  by  Xerxes,  before  the  Peloponnesian  war,  before  the 
civil  wars  of  Csesar  and  Pompey,  before  the  fall  of  Jerusa- 
lem, before  the  invasion  of  Attila,  and  before  a  vast  number 
of  the  greatest  famines  and  pestilences  that  have  afflicted 
mankind.^  Many  hundreds  of  cases  of  this  kind  were  col- 
lected, and  they  furnished  an  amount  of  evidence  which  was 
quite  sufficient  to  convince  even  somewhat  sceptical  minds, 
at  a  time  when  the  supernatural  character  of  comets,  harmo- 
nising with  the  prevailing  notions  of  the  government  of  the 
universe,  appeared  antecedently  probable.  Some  theologians 
indeed,  while  fully  acknowledging  the  ominous  character  of 
these  apparitions,  attemj^ted  to  explain  them  in  a  somewhat 
rationalistic  manner.  According  to  their  view,  comets  were 
masses  of  noxious  vapour  exhaled — some  said  from  the 
earth,  and  others  from  tlie  sky,  which  by  tainting  the  atmos- 
phere produced  pestilence.  Kings  were  indeed  especially 
liable  to  succumb  beneath  this  influence,  but  this  was  only 
because  their  labours  and  their  luxurious  habits  rendered 

^  The  fullest  statement  of  the  evidence  of  the  prophetic  character  of  comets 
I  have  met  with,  is  in  Raxo,  Be  Cometh  (15*78).  The  author  was  a  Spanish 
physician. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   RATIONALISM.  291 

them  weaker  than  other  men/  Usually,  however,  comets 
were  simply  regarded  as  suj^ernatural  warnings  sent  to  prog- 
nosticate calamity.  Tv/o  or  three  great  men  made  vain  ef- 
forts to  shake  the  belief.  Thus,  during  one  of  tlie  panics  oc- 
casioned by  a  great  comet,  Paracelsus  vfrote  forcibly  against 
the  popular  notions,^  which  he  assailed  on  theological 
grounds  as  forming  a  species  of  fatalism,  and  as  being  incon- 
sistent with  the  belief  in  Providence.  In  tlie  midst  of  a 
similar  panic  in  1680,  Bayle  made  a  similar  effort,  but,  in 
obedience  to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  he  adopted  not  a  theologi- 
cal but  a-  philosophical  point  of  view.  He  displayed  with 
consummate  skill  the  weakness  of  a  process  of  reasoning 
which  rested  on  an  arbitrary  selection  of  chance  coincidences, 
and  he  made  the  subject  the  text  for  one  of  the  very  best 
books  that  have  ever  been  written  on  the  gradual  consolida- 
dation  of  superstitions.'  But  theology  and  philosophy  were 
alike  impotent  till  science  appeared  to  assist  them.  Halley 
predicted  the  revolution  of  comets,  and  they  were  at  once 
removed  to  the  domain  of  law,  and  one  of  the  most  ancient 
of  human  superstitions  was  destroyed. 

The  process  which  took  place  in  astronomy  furnishes  but 
a  single  though  perhaps  an  extreme  example  of  that  Avhich, 
m  the  seventeenth  century,  took  place  in  every  field  of 
science.     Everywhere  the  rapid  conquests  of  the  new  spirit 

'  Roccamora,  Be  Cometis  (Romoe,  ICZO),  pp.  238,  239. 

'^  In  a  letter  to  Zwinglius. 

^  And,  flying  off  at  a  tangent  from  liis  main  subject,  for  one  of  the  very 
ocst  dissertations  on  the  relation  between  religion  and  moral-.  With  the 
greatest  possible  admiration  for  the  Critical  Dictionary^  which  will  be  always 
regarded  as  one  of  the  most  stupendous  monuments  of  erudition  and  of  criti- 
cal acumen  ever  bequeathed  by  a  single  scholar,  I  cannot  but  think  that  the 
original  genius  of  Bayle  shines  still  more  brightly  in  the  Conirainfi-lcs  d'Entrer, 
in  some  of  the  Fensees  dlverses  sur  les  Cornefcs,  and  in  two  or  three  of  his 
Kouvelles  Lettres 


292  EATIOXALISM   IX   EUEOPE, 

were  substituting  the  idea  of  natural  law  for  that  of  super- 
natural interference,  and  persuading  men  that  there  must  he 
a  natural  solution  even  where  they  were  unable  to  discover 
it.  The  writings  of  Bacon,  although  tlieir  influence  has,  I 
think,  been  considerably  exaggerated,  partly  through  na- 
tional pride,  and  partly  because  men  have  accepted  too 
readily  the  very  unfair  judgments  Bacon  expressed  of  his 
contemporaries,^  j^^'^^^^^^J  contributed  more  than  any  other 
single  cause  to  guide  the  movement,  and  have,  in  England 
at  least,  become  almost  supreme.  Cliemistry  disengaged 
itself  from  alchemy,  as  astronomy  had  done  from  astrology. 
The  Academy  del  Cimento  was  established  in  Tuscany  in 
1G57,  the  Royal  Society  in  London  in  1660,  and  the  Academy 
of  Sciences  in  Paris  in  1666.     The  many  different  sciences 

^  The  age  of  Bacon  was  certainly  not  as  benighted  and  ignorant  on  scien- 
tific matters  as  he  always  represented  it.  On  the  contrary,  when  we  remember 
that  it  was  the  age  of  Copernicus,  Galileo,  Tycho  Brahe,  Kepler,  and  Gilbert, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  name  one  that  was  more  distinguished.  A  large  por- 
tion of  the  scientific  revival  in  Europe  may  be  justly  ascribed  to  these  great 
men ;  and  the  only  apology  that  can  be  offered  for  the  representations  of 
Bacon  is  that,  notwithstanding  his  great  genius,  he  was  totally  unable  to  grasp 
their  discoveries.  The  Copernican  system — the  greatest  discovery  of  the  age — 
he  rejected  to  the  last.  The  important  discoveries  of  Gilbert  about  the  magnet 
he  treated  not  only  with  incredulity,  but  with  the  most  arrogant  contempt.  In 
measuring  his  influence,  we  have  to  remember  that  it  was  certainly  not  dom- 
inant outside  England  till  that  union  between  the  English  and  French  intellects 
that  immediately  preceded  the  French  Revolution.  Then,  indeed,  his  philos- 
opliy  exercised  an  immense  and  salutary  influence  upon  the  Continent ;  but 
Europe  had  not  been  sleeping  till  then.  In  Great  Britain  itself.  Bacon  pro- 
duced no  perceptible  effect  upon  the  great  school  of  hterature  and  science  that 
grew  up  beyond  the  Tweed ;  and  even  in  England,  where  he  has  been  ahnost 
omnipotent,  two  of  the  very  greatest  men  stood  apart  from  his  disciples.  The 
whole  method  and  mental  character  of  Newton  was  opposed  to  that  of  Bacon, 
and,  as  his  biographer,  Sir  David  Brewster,  very  forcibly  contends,  there  is  not 
the  slightest  reason  to  believe  that  Newton  owed  anything  to  his  predecessor ; 
while  Harvey  avowedly  owed  his  great  discovery  to  that  doctrine  of  final  causc.-\ 
which  Bacon  stigmatised  as  'barren,  like  a  virgin  consecrated  to  God  that  can 
^Q^v  no  fruit.' 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    RATIONALISM.  293 

that  were  simultaneously  cultivated  not  merely  rescued  many 
distinct  departments  of  nature  from  superstition,  but  also  by 
their  continual  convergence  produced  the  conception  of  one 
all-embracing  scheme  of  law,  taught  men  habitually  to  asso- 
ciate the  Divine  presence  with  order  rather  than  with  mira- 
cle, and  accustomed  them  to  contemplate  with  admiring 
reverence  the  evidence  of  design  displayed  in  the  minutest 
animalcule  and  in  the  most  shortlived  ephemera,  and  also 
the  evidence  of  that  superintending  care  which  adapts  a 
sphere  of  liappiness  for  the  weakest  of  created  beings. 

A  very  important  consequence  of  this  change  Avas  that 
theological  sj'stems  lost  much  of  tlieir  harsh  and  gloomy 
character.  As  long  as  men  drew  their  notions  of  the  Deity 
from  what  they  regarded  as  the  abnormal,  their  attention 
was  chiefly  concentrated  upon  disasters,  for  these  are  for  the 
most  part  exceptional,  while  the  principal  sources  of  happi- 
ness are  those  which  are  most  common.  Besides,  it  is  one  of 
the  most  unamiable  characteristics  of  human  nature  that  it  is 
always  more  impressed  by  terror  than  by  gratitude.  Accord- 
ingly, the  devotion  of  our  ancestors  was  chiefly  connected 
with  storms  and  pestilences  and  famine  and  death,  which 
were  regarded  as  penal  inflictions,  and  consequently  created 
an  almost  maddening  terror.  All  parts  of  belief  assumed  a 
congenial  hue,  till  the  miserable  condition  of  man  and  tlie 
frightful  future  that  awaited  him  became  tlie  central  ideas 
of  theology.  But  this,  which  in  an  early  phase  of  civilisa- 
tion was  perfectly  natural,  soon  j^assed  away  Avhen  modern 
science  acquired  an  ascendency  over  theological  develop- 
ments ;  for  the  attention  of  men  was  then  directed  chiefly  to 
those  multitudinous  contrivances  which  are  designed  for  the 
wellbeing  of  all  created  things,  while  the  terrorism  once  pro- 
duced by  the  calamities  of  life  was  at  least  greatly  dimin- 


294  RATIOXALISM   IN    EUEOPE. 

ished  when  tliey  were  shown  to  be  the  result  of  general  laws 
mterwoven  with  the  whole  system  of  the  globe,  and  many 
of  which  had  been  in  operation  before  the  creation  of  man. 

Another  branch  of  scientific  progress  which  I  may  notice 
on  account  of  its  influence  upon  sj)eculatiYe  opinions,  is  the 
rapid  growth  of  a  morphological  conception  of  the  universe. 
According  to  the  great  philosophers  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, our  world  was  a  vast  and  complicated  mechanism  called 
into  existence  and  elaborated  instantaneously  in  all  its  parts 
by  the  creative  fiat  of  the  Deity.  In  the  last  century,  how- 
ever, and  still  more  in  the  present  century,  the  progress  of 
chemistry,  the  doctrine  of  the  interchange  and  indestructi- 
bility of  forces,  and  the  discoveries  of  geology,  have  greatly 
altered  this  conception.  "Without  entering  into  such  ques- 
tions as  that  of  the  mutability  of  species,  which  is  still  j^end- 
ing,  and  which  the  present  writer  would  be  altogether  in- 
competent to  discuss,  it  will  be  admitted  that  in  at  least  a 
large  proportion  of  the  departments  of  science,  the  notion 
of  constant  transformation,  constant  progress  under  the  in- 
fluence of  natural  law  from  simple  to  elaborate  forms,  has 
become  dominant.  The  world  itself,  there  is  much  reason  to 
believe,  was  once  merely  a  vapour,  which  was  gradually  con- 
densed and  consolidated,  and  its  present  condition  represents 
the  successive  evolutions  of  countless  ages.  This  conception, 
which  exhibits  the  universe  rather  as  an  organism  than  a 
mechanism,  and  regards  the  complexities  and  adaptations  it 
disj^lays  rather  as  the  results  of  gradual  development  from 
within  than  of  an  interference  from  without,  is  so  novel,  and 
at  first  sight  so  startling,  that  many  are  now  shrinking  from 
it  with  alarm,  under  tlie  impression  that  it  destroys  the  argu- 
ment from  design,  and  almost  amounts  to  the  negation  of  a 
Supreme  Intelligence.    But  there  can,  I  think,  be  little  doubt 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    KATIOXALTSM.  295 

that  such  fears  are,  for  the  most  part,  unfounded.-  That 
matter  is  governed  by  mind,  that  the  contrivances  and 
elaborations  of  the  universe  are  the  products  of  intelligence, 
are  propositions  which  are  quite  unshaken,  whether  we  re- 
gard these  contrivances  as  the  results  of  a  single  momentary 
exercise  of  will,  or  of  a  slow,  consistent,  and  regulated 
evolution.  The  proofs  of  a  pervading  and  developing  intel- 
ligence, and  tlie  proofs  of  a  coordinating  and  combining 
intelligence,  are  both  untouched,  nor  can  any  conceivable 
progress  of  science  in  this  direction  destroy  them.  If  the 
famous  suggestion,  that  all  animal  and  vegetable  life  results 
from  a  single  vital  germ,  and  that  all  the  different  animals  and 
plants  now  existent  were  developed  by  a  natural  process  of 
evolution  from  that  germ,  were  a  demonstrated  truth,  Ave 
should  still  be  able  to  point  to  the  evidences  of  intelligence 
displayed  in  the  measured  and  progressive  development,  in 
those  exquisite  forms  so  different  from  what  blind  chance 
could  produce,  and  in  the  manifest  adaptation  of  surround- 
ing circumstances  to  the  living  creature,  and  of  the  living 
creature  to  surrounding  circumstances.  The  argument  from 
design  would  indeed  be  changed,  it  Avould  require  to  be 
stated  in  a  new  form,  but  it  would  be  fully  as  cogent  as  be- 
fore. Indeed  it  is,  perhaps,  not  too  much  to  say,  that  the 
more  fully  this  conception  of  universal  evolution  is  grasped, 
the  more  firmly  a  scientific  doctrine  of  Providence  will  be 
established,  and  the  stronger  will  be  the  presumption  of  a 
future  progress. 

The  effects  of  this  process  which  physical  science  is  now 
undergoing  are  inanifested  very  cleaiiy  in  the  adjacent 
field  of  history,  in  what  may  be  termed  the  morphological 

'  See  the  remarks  on  the  consistence  of  morphological  conceptions  with 
the  doctrine  of  final  causes  in  Whewell's  TEstory  of  Scientific  Ideas, 


296  EATIONALISM   IX    EUEOPE. 

conception  of  opinions — that  is  to  say,  in  the  belief  that 
tliere  is  a  law  of  orderly  and  progressive  transformation  to 
which  our  speculative  opinions  are  subject,  and  the  causes 
of  which  are  to  be  sought  in  the  general  intellectual  condi- 
tion of  society.  As  the  main  object  of  this  whole  book  is  to 
illustrate  the  nature  and  progress  of  this  conception,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  dwell  upon  it  at  present,  and  I  advert  to  it 
simply  for  the  purpose  of  showing  its  connection  with  the 
discoveries  of  science. 

It  vrill  be  remarked,  that  in  this  as  in  most  other  cases 
the  influence  physical  sciences  have  exercised  over  specula- 
trv^e  opinions  has  not  been  of  the  nature  of  a  direct  logical 
proof  displacing  an  old  belief,  but  rather  the  attracting  in 
fluence  of  a  new  analogy.  As  I  have  already  had  occasions 
to  observe,  an  impartial  examination  of  great  transitions  of 
opinions  will  show  that  they  have  been  effected  not  by  the 
force  of  direct  arguments,  not  by  such  reasons  as  those 
vrhich  are  alleged  by  controversialists  and  recorded  in  creeds, 
but  by  a  sense  of  the  incongruity  or  discordance  of  the  old 
doctrines  with  other  parts  of  our  knowledge.  Each  man 
assimilates  the  different  orders  of  his  ideas.  There  must 
always  be  a  certain  keeping  or  congruity  or  analogy  be- 
tween them.  The  general  measure  of  probability  determines 
belief,  and  it  is  derived  from  many  departments  of  knowl- 
edge. Hence  it  is  that  w^henever  the  progress  of  enquiry 
introduces  a  new  series  of  conceptions  into  physical  science, 
which  represents  one  aspect  of  the  relations  of  the  Deity  to 
man,  these  conceptions,  or  at  least  something  like  them,  are 
speedily  transferred  to  theology,  which  represents  another. 

It  must,  however,  be  acknowledged,  that  there  are  some 
influences  resulting  from  physical  science  Avhich  are  deeply 
to  be  deplored,  for  they  spring  neither  from  logical  arguments 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    RATIONALISM.  297 

nor  from  legitimate  analogies,  but  from  misconceptions  that 
are  profoundly  imbedded  in  our  belief,  or  from  fallacies  into 
which  our  minds  are  too  easily  betrayed.  The  increased 
evidence  of  natural  religion  furnished  by  the  innumerable 
marks  of  creative  or  coordinating  wisdom  which  science  re- 
veals, can  hardly  be  over-estimated,^  nor  can  it  be  reasonably 
questioned  that  a  world  governed  in  all  its  parts  by  the  in- 
teraction of  fixed  natural  laws  implies  a  higher  degree  of  de- 
signing skill  than  a  chaos  of  fortuitous  influences  irradiated 
from  time  to  time  by  isolated  acts  of  spiritual  intervention. 
Yet  still  so  generally  is  the  idea  of  Divine  action  restricted 
to  that  of  miracle,  that  every  discovery  assigning  strange 
phenomena  their  place  in  the  symmetry  of  nature  has  to 
many  minds  an  irreligious  appearance  ;  which  is  still  further 
strengthened  by  the  fact,  that  while  physical  science  ac- 
quiesces in  the  study  of  laws  as  the  limit  of  its  research,  even 
scientific  men  sometimes  forget  that  the  discovery  of  law  is 
not  an  adequate  solution  of  the  problem  of  causes.  When 
all  the  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies  have  been  reduced  to 
the  dominion  of  o-ravitation,  o-ravitation  itself  still  remains 
an  insoluble  problem.  Why  it  is  that  matter  attracts  mat- 
ter, we  do  not  know — we  perhaps  never  shall  knov/.  Science 
can  throw  much  light  upon  the  laws  that  preside  over  the 
development  of  life ;  but  what  life  is,  and  what  is  its  ultimate 
cause,  we  are  utterly  unable  to  say.  The  mind  of  man, 
which  can  track  the  course  of  the  comet  and  measure  the 

^  Laplace,  v-ho  lias  done  more  than  any  one  else  to  systematise  arguments 
from  probability,  and  who  will  certainly  not  be  accused  of  any  desire  to  sub- 
ordinate science  to  theology,  states  the  argument  for  design  derived  from  the 
motions  of  the  planetary  bodies  in  the  following  almost  bewildering  terms : 
'  Des  phenomcnes  aussi  extraordiuaires  ne  sont  point  dus  k  dcs  causes  irregu- 
lieres.  En  soumcttant  au  calcul  leur  probabilite,  on  trouve  qu'il  y  a  plus  de 
deux  cents  mille  milliards  b.  parier  contre  un  qu'ils  ne  sont  pohit  reflet  du 
hasard.' — Systcme  du  Moiide,  liv.  v.  c,  6. 


298  EATIOXALISM   IX   EUROPE. 

velocity  of  light,  has  hitherto  i^rovecl  incapable  of  explaining 
the  existence  of  the  minutest  insect  or  the  growth  of  the  most 
humble  plant.  In  grouping  phenomena,  in  ascertaining  their 
sequences  and  their  analogies,  its  achievements  have  been 
marvellous ;  in  discovering  ultimate  causes  it  has  absolutely 
failed.  An  imjDenetrable  mystery  lies  at  the  root  of  every 
existing  thing.  The  first  principle,  the  dynamic  force,  the 
vivifying  poAver,  the  efficient  causes  of  those  successions 
which  we  term  natural  laws,  elude  the  utmost  efforts  of  our 
research.  The  scalj^el  of  the  anatomist  and  the  analysis  of 
the  chemist  are  liere  at  fault.  The  microscoj^e,  which  reveals 
the  traces  of  all-perv^ading,  all-ordaining  intelligence  in  the 
minutest  globule,  and  displays  a  world  of  organised  and  living 
beings  in  a  grain  of  dust,  supplies  no  solution  of  the  problem. 
^Ye  know  nothing  or  next  to  nothing  of  the  relations  of  mind 
to  matter,  either  in  our  own  j^ersons  or  in  the  world  that  is 
around  us ;  and  to  suppose  that  the  progress  of  natural  science 
eliminates  the  conception  of  a  first  cause  from  creation,  by 
supplying  natural  ex2:)lauations,  is  completely  to  ignore  tlie 
sphere  and  limits  to  which  it  is  confined. 

It  must  be  acknowledged  also,  that  as  the  increasing 
sense  of  law  appears  to  many  the  negation  of  the  reality  or 
at  all  events  of  the  continuity  of  the  Divine  action,  so  an  in 
creased  sense  of  the  multiplicity  of  the  effects  of  matter  not 
unfrequently  leads  to  a  negation  of  the  existence  of  mind. 
The  mathematician  ridiculed  by  Berkeley  Avho  maintained 
that  the  soul  must  be  extension,  and  the  fiddler  who  was 
convinced  that  it  must  be  harmony,  are  scarcely  exaggerated 
representati'^  es  of  the  tendency  manifested  by  almost  every 
one  who  is  much  addicted  to  a  single  study  to  explain  by  it 
all  the  phenomena  of  existence.  Nearly  every  science  when 
it  has  first  arisen  has  had  to  contend  with  two  o-rcat  obstacles 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    EATIOXALISM.  299 

— with  the  unreasoning  incredulity  of  those  who  regard 
novelty  as  necessarily  a  synonyme  for  falsehood,  and  with 
the  unrestrained  enthusiasm  of  those  who,  i)erceiving  vaguely 
and  dimly  a  new  series  of  yet  undefined  discoveries  opening 
nj)on  mankind,  imagine  that  they  will  prove  a  universal  sol- 
vent. It  is  said  that  when,  after  long  years  of  obstinate  dis- 
belief, the  reality  of  the  great  discovery  of  Harvey  dawned 
upon  the  medical  world,  the  iirst  result  was  a  school  of 
medicine  which  regarded  man  simply  as  an  hydraulic 
machine,  and  found  the  princij^le  of  every  malady  in  imper- 
fections of  circulation.*  The  same  history  has  been  contin- 
ually reproduced.  That  love  of  symmetry  which  makes  men 
impatient  to  reduce  all  phenomena  to  a  single  cause,  has 
been  the  parent  of  some  of  the  noblest  discoveries,  but  it  has 
also,  by  the  imperfect  classifications  it  has  produced,  been 
one  of  the  most  prohfic  sources  of  human  error.  In  the  pres- 
ent day,  when  the  study  of  the  laws  of  matter  has  assumed 
an  extraordinary  develojDment,  and  when  the  relations  be- 
tween the  mind  and  the  body  are  chiefly  investigated  with  a 
primary  view  to  the  functions  of  the  latter,  it  is  neither  sur- 
prising nor  alarming  that  a  strong  movement  towards  ma- 
terialism should  be  the  consequence. 

But  putting  aside  these  illegitimate  consequences,  it  ap- 
pears that  in  addition  to  the  general  effects  of  intellectual 
development  upon  theological  opinions  in  enabling  men  more 
]-eadily  to  conceive  the  invisible,  and  thus  rescuing  them 
from  idolatry,  and  in  enabling  them  to  spiritualise  and 
elevate  their  ideal,  and  thus  emancipating  them  from  anthro- 
pomorphism, that  particular  branch  of  intellectual  progress 
which  is  comprised  under  the  name  of  physical  science  has 
exercised  a  distinct  and  special  influence,  which  has  been 

*  Lcmoiuo,  Lc  Yitalhme  de  SlaJd,  p.  G. 


OUU  EATIOXALISM   lis"   EUROPE. 

partly  logical,  but  more  generally  the  assimilating  influence 
of  analogy.  It  lias  displaced  man's  early  conception  of  tlie 
position  of  his  world  in  the  universe,  and  of  the  relation  of 
the  catastrophes  it  exhibits  to  his  history.  It  has  substituted 
a  sense  of  law  for  a  predisposition  to  the  miraculous,  and 
taught  men  to  associate  the  Deity  vv'ith  the  normal  rather 
than  with  the  abnormal.  It  has  in  a  great  degree  divested 
calamity  of  its  penal  character,  multiplied  to  an  incalculable 
extent  the  evidences  of  the  Divine  beneficence,  and  at  the 
same  time  fostered  a  notion  of  ordered  growth  which  has  ex- 
tended from  the  world  of  matter  to  the  world  of  mind. 

These  have  been  its  chief  effects  upon  belief.  It  has  also 
exercised  a  considerable  influence  npon  the  systems  of  Bibli 
cal  interpretation  by  which  that  belief  is  exp)ressed.  The 
first  great  impulse  to  Rationalistic  Biblical  criticism  was 
probably  given  by  the  antagonism  that  was  manifested  be- 
tween the  discovery  of  Galileo  and  Scripture  as  it  was  in- 
terpreted by  the  host  of  theologians  who  argued  after  the 
fashion  of  Cosmas.  Xew  facts  were  discovered  and  therefore 
a  new  system  of  interpretation  was  required,  and  men  began 
to  apply  their  critical  j^owers  to  the  sacred  writings  for  the 
purpose  of  bringing  them  into  conformity  with  opinions  that 
had  been  arrived  at  independently  by  the  reason.  Each  nevv' 
discovery  of  science  that  bore  upon  any  Scriptural  question, 
each  new  order  of  tendencies  evoked  by  the  advance  of  civili- 
sation, produced  a  repetition  of  the  same  process. 

Probably  the  earliest  very  elaborate  example  of  this  kind 
of  intei-j^retation  was  furnished  by  a  French  Protestant, 
named  La  Peyrere,  in  a  book  which  was  published  in  1655.* 
The  author,  who  fully  admitted  though  he  endeavoured  to 

*  Si/stema  TheoIof/zc2(m  cz  Prce-Adamilarum  Ilrpothcsi,  paiTi  i.  The 
second  part  never  appeared. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   RATIONALISM.  301 

reetrict  the  sphere  of  the  miraculous,  had  been  struck  by 
some  difficulties  connected  witli  the  ordinary  doctrine  of 
Original  Sin,  and  by  some  points  in  which  science  seemed  to 
clash  with  the  assertions  of  the  Old  Testament ;  and  he  en- 
deavoured to  meet  them  by  altogether  isolating  the  Biblical 
Ijistory  from  the  general  current  of  human  affairs.  Adam,  ho 
maintained,  was  not  the  father  of  the  human  race,  but  simply 
the  progenitor  of  the  Jews,  and  the  v/hole  antediluvian  his- 
tory is  only  that  of  a  single  people.  Thus  the  antiquity 
which  the  Eastern  nations  claimed  might  be  admitted,  and 
the  principal  difficulties  attending  the  Deluge  were  dissolved. 
It  was  altogether  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  death  and  sick- 
ness and  suffering  were  the  consequences  of  the  transgres- 
sion. Adam  had  by  this  act  simply  incurred  spiritual  pen- 
alties, which  descended  upon  the  Jews.  '  In  the  day  thou 
eatest  thou  shalt  die '  could  not  have  been  meant  literally, 
because  it  was  not  literally  fulfilled ;  nor  could  the  curse  upon 
the  serpent,  because  the  motion  of  the  serpent  along  the 
ground  is  precisely  that  which  its  conformation  implies.  The 
existence  of  men  who  were  not  of  the  family  of  Adam  is 
shadowed  obscurely  in  many  passages,  but  appears  decisive- 
ly in  the  history  of  Cain,  who  feared  to  wander  forth  lest 
men  should  kill  him,  and  who  built  a  city  at  a  time  when, 
according  to  the  common  view,  he  was  almost  alone  in  the 
world.'     The  mingling  of  the  sons  of  God  and  the  daughters 

^  Some  of  La  Peyrerc's  arguments  on  tliis  point  are  curiously  far-fotcbed. 
Thus  he  asks  why  Abel  should  have  kept  sheep  if  there  were  no  robbers  to  be 
feared,  and  where  Cain  got  the  weapon  with  which  he  killed  his  brother.  The 
existence  of  a  race  of  men  not  descended  from  Adam  was  very  strenuously 
maintained,  towards  the  close  of  the  last  century,  by  an  eccentric  member  of 
the  Irish  Parliament  named  Dobbs,  in  a  very  strange  book  called  A  Short  View 
of  Prophecy.  It  has  also  been  advocated  in  America,  with  a  view  to  the  do- 
fence  of  Negro  Slavery.  Mr.  Dobbs  thought  there  was  a  race  resulting  from 
an  intrigue  of  Eve  with  the  Devil. 


303  RATIONALISM   IX   EUROPE. 

of  men  means  the  intermarriage  between  the  two  races. 
The  Deluge  is  an  absohite  impossibility  if  regarded  as  uni- 
versal, but  not  at  all  surprising  if  regarded  as  a  partial  inun- 
dation. 

Proceeding  to  the  history  of  a  later  period,  La  Peyrere  in 
the  first  place  denies  the  Mosaic  authorship  of  the  Pentateuch. 
In  defence  of  this  position  he  urges  the  account  of  the  death 
of  Moses,  and  he  anticij^ates  several  of  those  minute  criticisms 
which  in  our  own  day  have  acquired  so  great  a  prominence. 
The  phrase  '  These  are  the  words  which  Moses  spake  beyond 
Jordan,'  the  notice  of  the  city  which  is  called  '  Jair  to  the 
present  day,'  the  iron  bedstead  of  Og  still  shown  in  Rabbath, 
the  difficulties  about  the  conquest  of  the  Idumeans,  and  a  few 
other  passages,  seem  to  show  that  the  compilation  of  these 
books  was  long  j^osterior  to  the  time  of  Moses;  while  certain 
signs  of  chronological  confusion  which  they  evince  render  it 
probable  that  they  are  not  homogeneous,  but  are  formed  by 
the  fusion  of  several  distinct  documents.  It  should  be  ob- 
served, too,  that  they  employ  a  language  of  metaphor  and  of 
hyperbole  which  has  occasionally  given  rise  to  misapprehen- 
sions, special  instances  of  providential  guidance  being  inter- 
preted as  absolute  miracles.  Thus,  for  example,  the  wool  of 
the  Jewish  flocks  was  quite  sufficient  to  furnish  materials  for 
clothing  in  the  desert,  and  the  assertion  that  the  clothes  of 
the  Jews  waxed  not  old  is  simply  an  emphatic  expression  of 
that  extraordinary  providence  which  preserved  them  from  all 
want  for  forty  years  in  the  wilderness.  At  the  same  time 
La  Peyrere  does  not  deny  that  the  Jewish  liistory  is  full  of 
miracles,  but  he  maintains  very  strongly  that  these  were 
only  local,  and  that  the  general  course  of  tlic  universe  was 
never  disturbed  to  eflect  them.  The  prolongation  of  the  day 
at  tlie  command  of  Joshua  was  not  produced  by  any  altera- 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    EATIONALISM.  303 

tioH  in  the  course  of  the  earth  or  sun,  but  was  simply  an  at- 
mospheric phenomenon,  such  as  is  sometimes  exhibited  in  the 
Arctic  regions.  The  darkness  at  the  Crucifixion  was  also 
local ;  the  retrogression  of  the  shadow  on  the  sun-dial  in  tlie 
reign  of  Ilezekiah  did  not  result  from  a  disturbance  of  the 
order  of  the  heavenly  bodies ;  the  light  that  stood  over  the 
cradle  of  Christ  was  a  meteor,  for  a  star  could  not  possibly 
mark  out  with  precision  a  house. 

The  author  of  this  curious  book  soon  after  its  publication 
became  a  Koman  Catholic,  and  in  consequence  recanted  his 
opinions,  but  the  school  of  Biblical  interpretation  of  which  he 
was  perhaps  the  first  founder  continues  actively  to  the  present 
day.  To  trace  its  history  in  detail  does  not  fall  within  the 
plan  of  the  present  work.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  say  that 
there  are  two  natural  theories  by  which  men  have  endeav- 
oured to  explain  the  rise  of  religions,  and  that  each  of  these 
theories  has  in  particular  ages  or  countries  or  conditions  of 
thought  exercised  a  supreme  ascendency.^  The  first  method, 
which  attributes  religions  to  special  and  isolated  causes,  found 
its  principal  ancient  representative  in  Euhemerus,  who  main- 
tained that  the  pagan  gods  Avere  originally  illustrious  kings, 
deified  after  death  either  by  the  spontaneous  reverence  of 
the  people  or  by  the  cunning  of  the  rulers.^  The  woi'k  of 
Euhemerus,  being  translated  by  Ennius,  is  said  to  have  con- 
tributed largely  to  that  diffusion  of  scepticism  in  Rome  which 
preceded  the  rise  of  Christianity ;  and  its  theory  was  general- 
ly adopted  by  tlie  Fathers,  Avho,  hovrever,  added  that  devils 
had  assumed  the  names  of  the  dead.^     To  this  class  of  criti- 


^  See  Denis's  Hist,  des  Idecs  Morales  dans  V Antlqtiite. 
'  Locke,  in  his  Treatise  on  Government^  adopts  very  fully  the  theory  of 
Euheraerus  about  the  origin  of  the  pagan  divinities. 

'  The  first  Christian  writer  who  maintained  that  the  pagan  oracles  were 


30-i  KATI0XALI3M   IX   EUKOPE. 

cisni  belong  also  all  attempts  to  exj^laiii  miracles  by  impos- 
ture, or  by  optical  delusions,  or  by  the  misconception  of  some 
natural  phenomenon,  or  by  any  other  isolated  circumstance. 
The  other  method,  which  is  called  mythical,  and  which  was 
adopted  among  the  ancients  by  the  Pythagoreans,  the  Xeo- 
Platonists,  and  the  Gnostics,  regards  different  dogmatic  sys- 
tems as  embodying  religious  sentiments  or  great  moral  con- 
ceptions that  are  generally  diffused  among  mankind,  or  as 
giving  a  j^alpable  and  (so  to  speak)  material  form  to  the  as- 
13irations  of  the  societies  in  which  they  spring.  Thus,  while 
fully  admitting  that  special  circumstances  have  an  important 
influence  over  the  rise  of  opinions,  the  interpreters  of  this 
school  seek  the  true  efficient  cause  in  the  general  intellectual 
atmosphere  that  is  prevalent.  They  do  not  pretend  to  ex- 
plain in  detail  how  different  miracles  came  to  be  believed, 
but  they  assert  that  in  a  certain  intellectual  condition  phe- 
nomena which  are  deemed  miraculous  will  always  appear, 
and  that  the  general  character  of  those  phenomena  will  be  de- 
termined by  the  prevailing  predisposition.  The  first  of  these 
schools  of  interpretation  was  general  in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteentli  centuries,  and  has  been  especially  favoured  by 
nations  like  the  ancient  Romans,  or  like  the  modern  English 
and  French,  who  are  distinguished  for  a  love  of  precise  and 
definite  conclusions ;  wdiile  the  second  has  been  most  promi- 
nent in  the  present  century;  and  in  Germany. 

It  must,  however,  be  admitted  that  the  energy  displayed 
in  framing  natural  explanations  of  miraculous  phenomena 
bears  no  proportion  to  that  which  has  been  exhibited  in  a 


simply  impositions,  vncomiectcd  with  daemons,  is  said  to  have  been  a  Dutch 
Anabaptist  physician  named  Van  Dale ;  and  the  same  position  was  afterwards 
maintained  by  Fontenclle,  in  his  Ilistoire  dcs  Oracles,  which  was  answered  by 
a  Jesuit  named  Baltus.     (Durand,  Vie  Je  Vanini,  pp.  lVO-1'72.') 


DEVELOPMEXTS    OF    NATIONALISM.  305 

criticism  that  is  purely  disintegrating  and  destructive. 
Spinoza,  whose  profound  knowledge  not  only  of  the  Hebrew 
language  but  also  of  Kabbinical  traditions  and  of  Jewish 
modes  of  thought  and  expression  made  him  peculiarly  com- 
petejit  for  the  task,  set  the  example  in  his  '  Tractatus  Theolo- 
gico-Politicus,'  ^  and  Germany  soon  after  plunged  into  tlic 
bottomless  abyss  from  which  she  has  not  emerged.  But  tljc 
fact  which  must,  I  think,  especially  strike  the  impartial  ob- 
server, is  that  these  criticisms,  in  at  least  the  great  majority 
of  cases,  are  carried  on  with  a  scarcely  disguised  purpose  of 
wresting  the  Bible  into  conformity  with  notions  that  have 
been  independently  formed.  The  two  writers  who  have 
done  most  to  supply  the  principles  of  the  movement  are 
Lessing  and  Kant.  The  first  emphatically  asserts  that  no 
doctrine  should  be  accepted  as  part  of  Scripture  which  is  not 
in  accordance  Avith  'reason,'  an  expression  which  in  the 
writings  of  modern  German  critics  may  be  not  unfairly  re- 
garded as  equivalent  to  the  general  scoj)e  and  tendency  of 
modern  thought.''  The  doctrine  of  Kant  is  still  more  exj^licit. 
According  to  him  ^  every  dogmatic  system,  or,  as  he  expresses 
it,  every  'ecclesiastical  belief,'  should  be  regarded  as  the 

^  Spinoza  was,  as  far  as  I  know,  the  first  writer  who  dwelt  much  on  the 
possible  or  probable  falsification  of  some  portions  of  the  Old  Testament  by  the 
insertion  of  wrong  vowel-points,  a  subject  which  was  a  few  years  since  inves- 
tigated in  a  work  on  Hebrew  Interpolations^  by  Dr.  Wall,  of  Dublin  University. 
Some  of  the  remarks  of  Spinoza  about  the  Jewish  habit  of  speaking  of  the 
suggestions  of  their  own  minds  as  inspirations  are  still  worth  reading,  but  with 
these  exceptions  the  value  of  the  Tractatus  Thcolo^jico-PoViticus  seems  to  me 
to  be  chiefly  historical. 

"^  See,  on  Lessing's  views,  a  clear  statement  in  Amand  Sainte's  Bist. 
Critique  du  Rationalisme  en  Allemagnc.  Strauss,  in  the  Introduction  to  his 
Life  of  Jems,  gives  a  vivid  sketch  of  the  progress  of  German  Rationalism  ; 
and  the  manner  in  which  he  there  treats  the  subject  of  miracles  illustrates  ver;- 
clearly  the  wide  use  made  of  the  term  '  reason '  in  German  criticism. 

'  See  his  Religion  within  the  Limits  of  the  Reason. 
VOL.  I.— 20 


306  KATIOXALISM    IN    ECEOPE. 

vehicle  or  envelope  of  '  j^ure  religion,'  or  in  other  Tvords  of 
tho^e  nioi.les  of  feelino^  which  constitute  natural  relisjion. 
The  ecclesiastical  belief  is  necessary,  because  most  men  are 
unable  to  accept  a  purely  moral  belief  unless  it  is  as  it  were 
materialised  and  embodied  by  grosser  conceptions.  But 
the  ecclesiastical  belief  being  entirely  subordinate  to  pure 
religion,  it  followed  that  it  should  be  interpreted  simj)ly 
with  a  view  to  the  latter — that  is  to  say,  all  doctrines  and 
all  passages  of  Scripture  should  be  regarded  as  intended  to  * 
convey  some  moral  lesson,  and  no  interpretation,  however 
natural,  should  be  accepted  as  correct  which  collides  with 
our  sense  of  right. 

The  statement  of  this  doctrine  of  Kant  may  remind  the 
reader  that  in  tracing  the  laws  of  the  religious  development 
of  societies  I  have  hitherto  dwelt  only  on  one  aspect  of  the 
subject.  I  have  examined  several  important  intellectual 
agencies  w^hich  have  effected  intellectual  changes,  but  have 
as  yet  altogether  omitted  the  laws  of  moral  development. 
In  endeavouring  .to  supply  this  omission,  Ave  are  at  first  met 
by  a  school  which  admits,  indeed,  that  the  true  essence  of  all 
religion  is  moral,  but  at  the  same  time  denies  that  there  can 
be  in  this  respect  any  principle  of  progress.  Nothing,  it  is 
said,  is  so  immutable  as  morals.  The  difference  between 
right  and  wrong  was  always  known,  and  on  this  subject  our 
conceptions  can  never  be  enlarged.  But  if  by  the  term 
moral  be  included  not  simply  the  broad  difference  between 
acts  which  are  positively  virtuous  and  those  which  are  posi- 
tively vicious,  but  also  the  prevailing  ideal  or  standard  of 
excellence,  it  is  quite  certain  that  morals  exhibit  as  constant 
a  development  as  intellect,  and  it  is  probable  that  this  de- 
velojDment  has  exercised  as  important  an  influence  upon  so- 
ciety.    It  is  one  of  the  most  familiar  facts  that  there  are 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   EATIONALISM.  307 

certain  virtues  that  are  higher  than  others,  and  that  many  of 
these  belong  exckisively  to  a  highly  developed  civilisation.^ 
Thus,  that  the  love  of  truth  is  a  virtue  is  a  proposition 
which,  stated  simply,  would  have  been  probably  accepted 
with  equal  alacrity  in  any  age ;  but  if  we  examine  the  extent 
to  which  it  is  realised,  we  find  a  profound  difference.  We 
find  that  in  an  early  period,  while  all  the  virtues  of  an  un- 
compromising partisan  are  cordially  i-ecognised,  the  higher 
virtue,  which  binds  men  through  a  love  of  conscientious 
enquiry  to  endeavour  to  jDursue  an  eclectic  course  when  party 
and  sectarian  passions  rage  fiercely  around  them,  is  not  only 
entirely  unappreciated,  but  is  almost  impossible ;  that  it  is 
even  now  only  recognised  by  a  very  few  who  occupy  the 
eminences  of  thought ;  and  that  it  must  therefore  be  recog- 
nised by  the  multitude  in  proportion  as  they  apj^roach  the 
condition  of  those  few.  Thus,  the  pursuit  of  virtue  for  its 
own  sake  is  undoubtedly  a  higher  excellence  than  the  pursuit 
of  virtue  for  the  sake  of  attaining  revv'ard  or  avoiding  punish- 
ment; yet  the  notion  of  disinterested  virtue  belongs  almost 
exclusively  to  the  higher  ranks  of  the  most  civilised  ages, 
and  exactly  in  proportion  as  we  descend  the  intellectual  scale 
is  it  necessary  to  elaborate  the  system  of  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments. 

Humanity  again,  in  theory,  appears  to  be  an  unchange- 
able virtue ;  but  if  we  examine  its  applications,  we  find  it 
constantly  changing.  Bull-baiting,  and  bear-baiting,  and 
cock-fighting,  and  countless  amusements  of  a  similar  kind, 
were  once  the  favourite  pastimes  of  Europe,  were  pursued  by 
all  classes,  even  the  most  refined  and  the  most  humane,  and 
were  universally  regarded  as  perfectly  legitimate.^     Men  of 

*  This  has  been  well  noticed  by  Archbishop  Whately— I  think  in  hid 
Annotations  to  Bacon. 

^  For  a  full  view  of  the  extent  to  which  these  amusements  wore  carried  on 


308  KATIOXALISM   IN    EUKOPE. 

the  most  distinguished  excellence  are  known  to  have  de 
lighted  in  them.  Had  anyone  challenged  them  as  barbarous, 
his  sentiments  would  have  been  regarded  not  simply  as 
absurd  but  as  incomprehensible.  There  was,  no  doubt,  no 
cmtroversy  upon  the  subject.^  Gradually,  however,  by  the 
silent  i^ressure  of  civilisation,  a  profound  change  passed  over 

and  diversified  in  England,  see  Strutt's  Sports  and  Pastimes  of  the  English 
People.  Sir  Thomas  More  was  accustomed  to  boast  of  his  skill  in  throwing 
the  '  cock  stele ; '  and,  to  the  very  last,  bull-baiting  was  defended  warmly  by 
Canning,  and  with  an  almost  passionate  earnestness  by  Windham. 

*  As  Macaulay,  with  characteristic  antithesis,  says :  '  If  the  Puritans  sup- 
pressed bull-baiting,  it  was  not  because  it  gave  pain  to  the  bull,  but  because  it 
gave  pleasure  to  the  spectators.'  The  long  unsuccessful  warfare  waged  by  the 
Popes  against  Spanish  bull-fighting  forms  a  very  curious  episode  in  ecclesiasti- 
cal history  ;  but  its  origin  is  to  be  found  in  the  number  of  men  who  had  been 
killed.  An  old  theologian  mentions  that,  in  the  town  of  Concha,  a  bull  that 
had  killed  seven  men  became  the  object  of  the  highest  reverence,  and  the 
people  were  so  gratified  that  a  painting  representing  the  achievement  was 
immediately  executed  for  the  public  square  (Concina,  De  Spectaculis,  p.  283). 
The  writers  who  denounced  Spanish  bull-fighting  contrasted  it  specially  with 
that  of  Italy,  in  which  the  bull  was  bound  by  a  rope,  and  which  was  therefore 
innocent  {Ibid.  p.  285).  Bull-fighting  was  prohibited  imder  pain  of  excom- 
munication by  Pius  Y.,  in  1567.  In  1575  Gregory  XIII.  removed  the  prohibi- 
tion except  as  regards  ecclesiastics,  who  were  still  forbidden  to  frequent  bull- 
fights, and  as  regards  festal  days,  on  which  they  wex'e  not  to  be  celebrated. 
Some  Spanish  theologians  having  agitated  much  on  this  subject,  Sixtus  Y.,  in 
1586,  confirmed  the  preceding  bull.  At  last,  in  1596,  Clement  YIII.,  moved 
by  the  remonstrance  of  the  Spanish  king  and  the  discontent  of  the  Spanish 
people,  removed  all  prohibitions  (in  Spain)  except  those  which  rested  on  the 
monks,  only  enjoining  caution.  At  present  bull-fights  are  usually  performed 
on  festal  days,  and  form  part  of  most  great  religious  festivals,  especially  those 
in  honour  of  the  Yirgin !  On  this  curious  subject  full  details  are  given  in 
Thesauro,  De  Pcenis  Ecclesiasticis  (Romse,  1640),  and  in  Concina,  De  Specfa- 
cutis  (Romae,  1752).  Among  the  Spanish  opponents  of  bull-fighting  was  the 
great  Jesuit  Mariana.  It  is  curious  enough  that  perhaps  the  most  sanguinary 
of  all  bull-fights  Avas  in  the  Coliseum  of  Rome,  in  1333,  v,hen  the  Roman 
nobles  descended  into  the  arena  and  eighteen  were  killed  (Cibrario,  Econoniia 
Politica,  vol.  i.  pp.  196,  197);  but  the  Pope  was  then  at  Avignon.  Miehelct 
lias  noticed  that  while  bull-fighting  was  long  extremely  popular  in  Rome,  the 
Romagna,  and  Spolcto,  it  never  took  root  in  Naples,  notwithstanding  the  long 
domination  of  the  Spaniards. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    KATIOXALISM.  309 

public  opinion.  It  was  effected,  not  by  any  increase  of 
knowledge,  or  by  any  process  of  definite  reasoning,  but 
sinij^ly  by  the  gradual  elevation  of  the  moral  standard. 
Amusements  that  were  once  universal  passed  from  the  Avomen 
to  the  men,  from  tlie  upper  to  the  lower  classes,  from  the 
virtuous  to  the  vicious,  till  at  last  the  Legislature  interposed 
to  suppress  them,  and  a  thrill  of  indignation  is  felt  whenever 
it  is  discos  ered  that  any  of  them  have  been  practised.  The 
history  of  the  abolition  of  torture,  the  history  of  punish- 
ments, the  history  of  the  treatment  of  the  conquered  in  war, 
the  history  of  slavery — all  present  us  with  examples  of  prac- 
tices which  in  one  age  were  accepted  as  perfectly  right  and 
natural,  and  which  in  another  age  were  repudiated  as  palpa- 
bly and  atrociously  inhuman.  In  each  case  the  change  was 
effected  much  less  by  any  intellectual  process  than  by  a  cer- 
tain quickening  of  the  emotions,  and  consequently  of  the 
moral  judgments;  and  if  in  any  country  we  find  practices  at 
all  resembling  those  which  existed  in  England  a  century  ago, 
we  infer  with  certainty  that  that  country  has  not  received  the 
full  amount  of  civilisation.  The  code  of  honour  which  first 
represents  and  afterwards  reacts  upon  the  moral  standard  of 
each  age  is  profoundly  different.  The  whole  type  of  virtue  in 
a  rude  warlike  people  is  distinct  from  that  of  a  refined  and 
peaceful  people,  and  the  character  which  the  latter  would 
admire  the  former  Avould  despise.  So  true  is  this,  that  each 
successive  stratum  of  civilisation  brings  with  it  a  distinctive 
variation  of  the  moral  type.  In  the  words  of  one  of  the 
very  greatest  historians  of  the  nineteenth  century,  'If  the 
archaeologist  can  determine  the  date  of  a  monument  by  the 
form  of  its  capital,  with  much  greater  certainty  can  the 
psychological  historian  assign  to  a  specific  period  a  moral 
fact,  a  predominating  passion,  or  a  mode  of  thought,  and  can 


310  EATIOXALISM    IX     EUKOPE. 

pronounce  it  to  have  been  impossible  in  the  ages  that  pre- 
ceded or  that  followed.  In  the  chronology  of  art  the  same 
forms  have  sometimes  been  reproduced,  but  in  the  moral  life 
such  a  recurrence  is  impossible :  its  conceptions  are  fixed  in 
their  eternal  place  in  the  fatality  of  time.' ' 

There  is,  however,  one  striking  exception  to  this  law  in 
the  occasional  appearance  of  a  phenomenon  which  maybe 
termed  moral  genius.  There  arise  from  time  to  time  men 
who  bear  to  the  moral  condition  of  their  age  much  the  same 
relations  as  men  of  genius  bear'to  its  intellectual  condition. 
They  anticipate  the  moral  standard  of  a  later  age,  cast  abroad 
conceptions  of  disinterested  virtue,  of  philanthropy,  or  of 
self-denial  that  seem  to  have  no  relation  to  the  spirit  of  their 
time,  inculcate  duties  and  suggest  motives  of  action  that 
appear  to  most  men  altogether  chimerical.  Yet  the  magnet- 
ism of  their  perfections  tells  powerfully  upon  their  contem- 
poraries. An  enthusiasm  is  kindled,  a  group  of  adherents  is 
formed,  and  many  are  emancipated  from  the  moral  condition 
of  their  age.  Yet  the  full  effects  of  such  a  movement  are 
but  transient.  The  first  enthusiasm  dies  away,  surrounding 
circumstances  resume  their  ascendency,  the  pure  faith  is 
materialised,  encrusted  with  concej^tions  that  are  alien  to  its 
nature,  dislocated,  and  distorted,  till  its  first  features  have 
almost  disappeared.  The  moral  teaching,  being  unsuited  to 
the  time,  becomes  inoperative  until  its  appropriate  civilisation 
has  dawned ;  or  at  most  it  faintly  and  imperfectly  filters 
through  an  accumulation  of  dogmas,  and  thus  accelerates  in 
some  measure  the  arrival  of  the  condition  it  requires. 

From  the  foregoing  considerations  it  is  not  difiicult  to 
infer  the  relations  of  dogmatic  systems  to  moral  jDrinciples. 
In  a  semi-barbarous  period,  when  the  moral  fiiculty  or  the 

Michelet. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    EATIONxVLISM.  311 

sense  of  right  is  far  too  weak  to  be  a  guide  of  conduct,  dog- 
matic systems  interpose  and  supply  men  with  motives  of 
action  that  are  suited  to  their  condition,  and  are  sufficient  to 
sustain  among  them  a  rectitude  of  conduct  that  would  other- 
wise be  unknown.  But  the  formation  of  a  moral  philosophy 
is  usually  the  first  step  of  the  decadence  of  religions.  Theol- 
ogy, then  ceasing  to  be  the  groundwork  of  morals,  sinks  into 
a  secondary  position,  and  the  main  source  of  its  power  is 
destroyed.  In  the  religions  of  Greece  and  Rome  this  separa- 
tion between  the  two  parts  of  religious  systems  Avas  carried 
so  far,  that  the  inculcation  of  morality  at  last  devolved  avow- 
edly and  exclusively  upon  the  philosophers,  while  the  priests 
were  wholly  occupied  with  soothsaying  and  expiations. 

In  the  next  place,  any  historical  faith,  as  it  is  interpreted 
by  fallible  men,  will  contain  some  legends  or  doctrines  that 
are  contrary  to  our  sense  of  right.  For  our  highest  concep- 
tion of  the  Deity  is  moral  excellence,  and  consequently  men 
always  embody  their  standard  of  perfection  in  their  religious 
doctrines;  and  as  that  standard  is  at  first  extremely  imperfect 
and  confused,  the  early  doctrines  will  exhibit  a  corresponding 
imperfection.  These  doctrines  being  stereotyped  in  received 
formularies  for  a  time  seriously  obstruct  the  moral  develop- 
ment of  socrety,  but  at  last  the  02:)position  to  them' becomes 
so  strong  that  they  must  give  way :  they  are  then  either 
violently  subverted  or  permitted  to  become  gradually  ob- 
solete. 

There  is  but  one  examj^le  of  a  religion  which  is  not 
naturally  weakened  by  civilisation,  and  that  example  is 
Christianity.  In  all  other  cases  the  decay  of  dogmatic  con- 
ceptions is  tantamount  to  a  complete  annihilation  of  religion; 
for  although  there  may  be  imperishable  elements  of  moral 
truth  mingled  with  those  conceptions,  they  have  nothing 


312  RATIONALISM   IN    EUKOPE. 

distinctive  or  peculiar.  The  moral  truths  coalesce  -^'ith  new 
systems,  the  men  who  uttered  them  take  their  place  with 
many  others  in  the  great  pantheon  of  history,  and  the  re- 
ligion having  discharged  its  functions  is  spent  and  withered. 
But  the  great  characteristic  of  Christianity,  and  the  great  moral 
proof  of  its  divinity,  is  that  it  has  been  the  main  source  of 
the  moral  development  of  Europe,  and  that  it  has  discharged 
this  office  not  so  much  by  the  inculcation  of  a  system  of 
ethit^s,  however  pure,  as  by  the  assimilating  and  attractive 
influence  of  a  perfect  ideal.  The  moral  progress  of  mankind 
can  never  cease  to  be  distinctively  and  intensely  Christian  as 
long  as  it  consists  of  a  gradual  approximation  to  the  character 
of  the  Christian  Founder.  There  is,  indeed,  nothing  more 
wonderful  in  the  history  of  the  human  race  than  the  way  in 
which  that  ideal  has  traversed  the  lapse  of  ages,  acquiring  a 
new  strength  and  beauty  with  each  advance  of  civilisation, 
and  infusing  its  beneficent  influence  into  every  sphere  of 
thought  and  action.  At  first  men  sought  to  grasp  by  minute 
dogmatic  definitions  tlie  divinity  they  felt.  The  controver- 
sies of  the  Homoousians  or  Monophysites  or  Xestorians  or 
Patripassians,  and  many  others  whose  very  names  now 
sound  strange  and  remote,  then  filled  tlie  Church.  Then 
came  the  period  of  visible  representations.  Tlie  handker- 
chief of  Veronica,  the  portrait  of  Edessa,  the  crucifix  of 
Nicodemus,  the  paintings  of  St.  Luke,^  the  image  traced  by 
an  angel's  hand  which  is  still  venerated  at  the  Lateran,  the 

^  As  Lami  and  Lanzi  have  shown,  this  legend  probably  resulted  from  a 
confusion  of  names ;  a  Florentine  monk,  named  Luca,  of  the  eleventh  century, 
being,  there  is  much  reason  to  believe,  the  chief  author  of  the  'portraits  by  St, 
Luke.'  They  arc  not,  however,  all  by  the  same  hand,  or  of  exactly  the  same 
age,  though  evidently  copied  from  the  same  type.  Others  think  they  art 
Byzantine  pictures  brought  to  Italy  during  the  time  of  the  Iconoclasts  and  of 
the  Crusades. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    KATIOXALISM.  313 

countless  visions  narrated  by  the  saints,  show  the  eagerness 
with  which  men  sought  to  realise  as  a  palpable  and  living 
image  their  ideal.  This  age  was  followed  by  that  of  his- 
torical evidences,  the  age  of  Sebonde  and  his  followers. 
Yet  more  and  more  with  advancing  years  the  moral  idea 
stood  out  from  all  dogmatic  conceptions ;  its  divinity  was 
recognised  by  its  perfection;  and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to 
say,  that  at  no  former  period  was  it  so  powerful  or  so  uni- 
versally acknowledged  as  at  present.  This  is  a  phenomenon 
altogether  unique  in  history;  and  to  those  who  recognise 
in  the  highest  type  of  excellence  the  highest  revelation 
of  the  r)eity,  its  importance  is  too  manifest  to  be  over- 
looked. 

I  trust  the  reader  will  pardon  the  tedious  length  to  which 
this  examination,  which  I  would  gladly  have  abridged,  has 
extended.  For  the  history  of  rationalism  is  quite  as  much 
a  history  of  moral  as  of  intellectual  development,  and  any 
conception  of  it  that  ignores  the  former  must  necessarily  be 
mutilated  and  false.  Nothing,  too,  can,  as  I  conceive,  be 
more  erroneous  or  superficial  than  the  reasonings  of  those 
who  maintain  that  the  moral  element  of  Christianity  has  in 
it  nothing  distinctive  or  peculiar.  The  method  of  this  school, 
of  which  Bolingbroke  may  be  regarded  as  the  type,  is  to  col- 
lect from  the  writings  of  difierent  heathen  writers  certain 
isolated  passages  embodying  precepts  that  are  inculcated  by 
Christianity ;  and  when  the  collection  had  become  very  large, 
the  task  was  supposed  to  be  accomplished.  But  the  true 
originality  of  a  system  of  moral  teaching  dej^ends  not  so  much 
upon  the  elements  of  which  it  is  composed,  as  upon  the  man- 
ner in  which  they  are  fused  into  a  symmetrical  whole,  upon 
the  proportionate  A^alue  that  is  attached  to  different  qualities, 
or,  to  state  the  same  thing  by  a  single  word,  upon  the  type 


314  EATIOXALISM   IX   EUEOPE. 

of  character  that  is  formed.  Xow  it  is  quite  certain  that  the 
Christian  type  differs  not  only  in  degree,  but  in  kind,  from 
the  Pagan  one. 

In  applying  the  foregoing  j^rinciples  to  the  history  of 
Christian  transformations,  we  should  naturally  expect  three 
distinct  classes  of  change.  The  first  is  the  gradual  evanes- 
cence of  doctrines  that  collide  with  our  moral  sense.  The 
second  is  the  decline  of  the  influence  of  those  ceremonies,  or 
purely  speculative  doctrines,  which,  without  being  opposed 
to  conscience,  are  at  least  wholly  beyond  its  s^jhere.  The 
third  is  the  substitution  of  the  sense  of  right  for  the  fear  of 
punishment  as  the  main  motive  to  virtue. 

I  reserve  the  consideration  of  the  first  of  these  three 
changes  for  the  ensuing  chapter,  in  which  I  shall  examine 
the  causes  of  religious  persecution,  and  shall  endeavour  to 
trace  the  history  of  a  long  series  of  moral  anomalies  in  specu- 
lation which  prepared  the  way  for  that  great  moral  anomaly 
in  practice.  The  second  change  is  so  evident,  that  it  is  not 
necessary  to  dwell  upon  it.  Xo  candid  person  who  is  ac- 
quainted with  history  can  fail  to  jDcrceive  the  difference  be- 
tween the  amount  of  reverence  bestowed  in  the  present  day, 
by  the  great  majority  of  men,  uj)on  mere  speculative  doctrines 
or  ritualistic  observances,  and  that  which  was  once  general. 
If  we  examine  the  Church  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries, 
we  find  it  almost  exclusively  occuj^ied  with  minute  questions 
concerning  the  manner  of  the  co-existence  of  the  two  natures 
in  Christ.  If  we  examine  it  in  the  middle  ages,  we  find  it  ab- 
sorbed in  ritualism  and  pilgrimages.  If  we  examine  it  at  the 
Reformation,  we  find  it  just  emerging  beneath  the  pressure  of 
civilisation  from  this  condition ;  yet  still  the  main  speculative 
test  was  the  doctrine  concerning  the  Sacrament,  which  had  no 
relation   to   morals;    and   the    main   practical   test    on   the 


DEVELOPMEXTS   OF   EATIOXALISM.  315 

Continent,  at  least,  was  the  eating  of  meat  on  Fridays.^  In 
the  present  clay,  with  the  great  "body  of  laymen  at  least,  such 
matters  appear  simply  puerile,  because  they  have  no  relation 
to  morals. 

The  third  change  is  one  which  requires  more  attention,  for 
it  involves  the  history  of  religious  terrorism — a  history  of  the 
deepest  but  most  2:)ainful  interest  to  all  who  study  the  intel- 
lectual and  moral  development  of  Euroj^e. 

It  would  be  difficult,  and  perhaps  not  altogether  desira- 
ble, to  attain  in  the  present  day  to  any  realised  conception 
of  the  doctrine  of  future  punishment  as  it  was  taught  by  the 
early  Fathers,  and  elaborated  and  developed  by  the  mediaeval 
priests.  Tliat  doctrine  has  now  been  thrown  so  much  into 
the  background,  it  has  been  so  modified  and  softened  and 
explained  away,  that  it  scarcely  retains  a  shadow  of  its  an- 

^  In  France  especially  the  persecution  on  this  ground  was  frightful.  Thus, 
Bodin  tell  us  that  in  1539  the  magistrates  of  Angers  burnt  alive  those  Avho 
were  proved  to  have  eaten  meat  on  Friday  if  they  remained  impenitent,  and 
hung  them  if  they  repented.  [Demon,  des  Sorciers^  p.  216.)  In  England  the 
subject  was  regarded  in  a  very  peculiar  light.  Partly  because  Anglicanism 
clung  closely  to  the  Fathers,  and  partly  because  England  was  a  maritime 
country,  fasting  was  not  only  encouraged,  but  strictly  enjoined ;  and  a  long 
scries  of  lav/s  and  proclamations  were  accordingly  issued  between  1548  and  the 
Restoration  enjoining  abstinence  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays,  and  throughout 
Lent ;  '  considering  that  due  and  godly  abstinence  is  a  mean  to  virtue,  and  to 
subdue  men's  bodies  of  their  souls  and  spirits ;  and  considering,  also,  csjjccialli/ 
that  fishers,  and  men  using  the  trade  of  fishing  in  the  sea,  may  thereby  the 
rather  be  set  on  work.'  See  a  list  of  these  laws  in  Hallam's  Co7ist.  Hist.  vol.  i. 
A  homily  also  enjoins  fasting  on  the  same  complex  ground.  There  are  some 
very  good  remai-ks  on  the  tendency  of  theologians  to  condemn  more  severely 
error  than  immorality,  and  in  condemning  different  errors  to  dwell  most 
severely  on  those  which  are  purely  speculative,  in  Bayle,  Pensecs  Divcrscs, 
cxcix.  He  says :  '  Si  un  doctcur  de  Sorbonne  avoit  la  hardiesse  de  chancclcr 
lant  soit  pen  sur  le  mystere  do  I'lncarnation,  .  .  .  il  couroit  risque  du  feu 
ie  la  Greve ;  mais  s'il  so  contentoit  d'avanccr  quclques  propositions  de  morale 
relachee,  comme  le  fameux  Escoliar,  on  se  contcnteroit  de  dire  que  cela  n'est 
pas  bien,  et  peut-etre  on  verroit  la  censure  de  son  livre.' 


316  RATIOXALISM   IN    EUEOPE. 

cient  repulsiveness.  It  is  sufficient  to  sa^',  that  it  was  gener- 
ally maintained  that  eternal  damnation  was  the  lot  which 
the  Almighty  had  reserved  for  an  immense  proportion  of  his 
creatures ;  and  that  that  damnation  consisted  not  simply  of 
the  i^rivation  of  certain  extraordinary  blessings,  but  also  of  the 
endurance  of  the  most  excruciating  agonies.  Perhaps  the  most 
acute  pain  the  human  body  can  undergo  is  that  of  fire ;  and 
this,  the  early  Fathers  assure  us,  is  the  eternal  destiny  of  the 
mass  of  mankind.  The  doctrine  was  stated  with  the  utmost 
literalism  and  precision.  In  the  two  first  apologies  for  the 
Christian  faith  it  Avas  distinctly  asserted.  Philosophy,  it  was 
said,  had  sometimes  enabled  men  to  look  with  contempt  upon 
torments,  as  upon  a  transient  evil ;  but  Christianity  presented 
a  prospect  before  which  the  stoutest  heart  must  quail,  for  its 
punishments  were  as  eternal  as  they  were  excruciating.^  Ori- 
gen,  it  is  true,  and  his  disciple  Gregory  of  ISTyssa,  in  a  some- 
what hesitating  manner,  diverged  from  the  prevailing  opinion, 
and  strongly  inclined  to  a  figurative  interpretation,  and  to 
the  belief  in  the  ultimate  salvation  of  all; '  but  they  were  alone 
in  their  opinion.  With  these  two  exceptions,  all  the  Fathers 
proclaimed  the  eternity  of  torments,  and  all  defined  those  tor- 
ments as  the  action  of  a  literal  fire  upon  a  sensitive  body.^ 

^  '  Sic  et  Epicurus  omneni  cruciatum  doloremque  depretiat  modicum  qui- 
dem  contemptibilem  pronuntiando  magnum  vero  non  diuturuum.  Euimvero 
nos  qui  sub  Deo  omnium  speculatore  dispungimur,  quique  setcrnam  ab  eo 
poenam  providemus  mcrito  soli  innocentioe  occurrimus  et  pro  sciential  plenitu- 
dine  et  pro  magnitudine  cruciatus  non  diuturni  verum  sempiterni.'  (Tertullian, 
Apol.^  cap.  xlv.) 

^  The  opinions  of  this  last  Father  on  the  subject,  which  are  very  little 
known,  are  clearly  stated  in  that  learned  book,  Dallajus,  De  roen:%  et  Sat»- 
fadionibus  (Amsterdam,  1649),  lib.  iv.  c.  Y.  For  Origen's  well-known  opin- 
ions, see  Ibid.  lib.  iv.  c.  6. 

^  A  long  chain  of  quotations  establishing  this  will  be  found  m  Sninden, 
On  the  Fire  of  Hell  {Low^on^  1'72'7);  and  in  llQihcvxf^  Enquiry  concerning 
Future  Funishmept  (London,  lY-ll). 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   EATIONALISM.  317 

When  the  pagans  argued  ^hat  a  body  could  not  remain  for 
ever  unconsumed  in  a  material  flame,  they  were  answered 
by  the  analogies  of  the  salamander,  the  asbestus,  and  the 
volcano ;  and  by  appeals  to  the  Divine  Omnipotence,  which 
was  supposed  to  be  continually  exerted  to  prolong  the  tor- 
tures of  the  dead/ 

We  may  be  quite  sure  that  neither  in  the  early  Church, 
nor  in  any  other  period,  was  this  doctrine  universally 
realised.  There  must  have  been  thousands  who,  believing, 
or  at  least  professing,  that  there  was  no  salvation  except  in 
the  Church,  and  that  to  be  excluded  from  salvation  meant 
to  be  precipitated  into  an  abyss  of  flames,  looked  back 
nevertheless  to  the  memory  of  a  pagan  mother,  who  had 
passed  away,  if  not  with  a  feeling  of  vague  hope,  at  least 
without  the  poignancy  of  despair.  There  must  have  been 
thousands  who,  though  they  would  perhaps  have  admitted 
with  a  Father  that  the  noblest  actions  of  the  heathen  were 
but  '  splendid  vices,'  read  nevertheless  the  pages  of  the  great 
historians  of  their  country  with  emotions  that  were  very  little 
in  conformity  with  such  a  theory.  Nor,  it  may  be  added, 
were  these  persons  those  whose  moral  percej)tions  had  been 
least  developed  by  contemplating  the  gentle  and  tolerant 
character  of  the  Christian  Founder.  Yet  still  the  doctrine 
was  stamped  upon  tlie  theology  of  the  age,  and  though  it 
had  not  yet  been  introduced  into  art,  it  was  realised  to  a 

'  See  the  long  argument  based  ou  these  grounds  in  St.  Aug.  De  Civ.  Dei, 
lib,  xxl.  cc.  1-9,  Minutius  Felix  treats  the  same  subject  in  a  somewhat  fero- 
cious passage  :  '  Ipse  rex  Jupiter  per  torrcntcs  ripas  et  atram  voraginem  jurat 
religiose :  destinatara  enim  sibi  cum  suis  cultoribus  poenam  praescius  perhor- 
I  cscit :  nee  tormentis  aut  modus  ullus  aut  terminus.  Illic  sapiens  ignis  mem- 
bra urit  et  reficit :  carpit  et  nutrit  sicut  ignes  fulminum  corpora  tangunt  nee 
absumunt :  sicut  ignes  JEtnsa  et  Yesuvii  et  ardentium  ubique  terrarura  flagrant 
Tiec  erogantur :  ita  poenale  illud  incendium  non  damnis  ardentium  pascitur  sed 
inexesa  corporum  laceratione  nutritur,'     (^Ociavins,  cap,  xxxv,) 


318  RATIONALISM   DT   EUROPE. 

degree  which  Ave  at  least  can  never  reproduce ;  for  it  was 
taught  in  the  midst  of  persecution  and  conflict,  and  it  flashed 
upon  the  mind  with  all  the  vividness  of  novelty.  Judaism 
had  had  nothing  like  it.  It  seems  now  to  be  generally  ad- 
mitted that  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life,  which  is  often 
spoken  of  as  a  central  conception  of  religion,  was  not  included 
in  the  Levitical  revelation,  or  at  least  Avas  so  faintly  intimated 
that  the  peoj^le  were  unable  to  perceive  it.^  During  the 
captivity,  indeed,  the  Jews  obtained  from  their  masters 
some  notions  on  the  subject,  but  CA^en  these  were  very  a- ague ; 
and  the  Sadducees,  who  rejected  the  new  doctrine  as  an  inno- 
vation, Avere  entirely  uncondemned.  Indeed,  it  is  probable 
that  the  chosen  people  had  less  clear  and  correct  knowledge 
of  a  future  world  than  any  other  tolerably  civilisecl  nation 
of  antiquity.  Among  the  early  j^opular  traditions  of  the 
pagans,  there  Avere,  it  is  true,  some  faint  traces  of  a  doctrine 
of  hell,  Avhich  are  said  to  have  been  elaborated  by  Pytha- 
goras,'^ and  especially  by  Plato,  Avho  did  more  then  any  other 
ancient  philosopher  to  develop  the  notion  of  expiation  ;  ^  but 


^  This  fact  had  been  noticed  by  several  early  English  divines  (Barrow  and 
Berkeley  among  the  number) ;  but  it  was  brought  into  especial  relief  by  War- 
burton,  who,  as  is  well  known,  in  his  Divine  Legation,  based  a  curious  argu- 
ment in  favour  of  the  divine  origin  of  the  Levitical  religion  upon  the  fact  that 
it  contained  no  revelation  of  a  future  world.  Archbishop  Whatcly,  who 
strongly  took  up  the  view  of  Warburton  concerning  the  fact,  has,  in  one  of  his 
Essays  on  the  Fecidiai-ities  of  the  Chi'isiian  Religion,  applied  it  very  skilfully 
to  establishing  the  divine  origin,  not  indeed  of  Judaism,  but  of  Christianity, 
because  Christianity  does  contain  a  revelation  of  the  future  world.  Both  these 
writers  contend  that  the  well-known  passage  in  Job  does  not  refer  to  the  resur- 
rection. The  subject  has  been  dwelt  on  from  another  point  of  view  by  Cliubb, 
Voltaire,  Strauss,  and  several  other  writers.  On  the  growth  of  the  doctrine 
among  the  Jews,  see  Mackay's  Religious  Development  of  the  Greeks  and 
Hebrews,  vol.  ii.  pp.  286-297. 

^  Denis,  Histoire  dcs  Idces  Morales  dam  VAntiquile,  torn.  i.  pp.  18,  19. 

3  Ibid.  pp.  104-106. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   EATIONALTSM.  319 

these,  at  the  period  of  the  rise  of  Christianity,  had  little  or 
no  influence  upon  the  minds  of  men ;  nor  had  they  ever  pre- 
sented the  same  characteristics  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Church. 
For  among  the  pagans  future  torture  was  supposed  to  be 
reserved  exclusively  for  guilt,  and  for  guilt  of  the  most 
extreme  and  exceptional  character.  It  was  such  culprits  as 
Tantalus,  or  Sisyphus,  or  Ixion,  that  were  selected  as  exam- 
ples, and,  excepting  in  the  mysteries,^  the  subject  never 
seems  to  have  been  brought  very  prominently  forward.  It 
was  the  distinctive  doctrine  of  the  Christian  theologians,  that 
suiferings  more  excruciating  tlian  any  the  imagination  could 
conceive  were  reserved  for  millions,  and  might,  be  the  lot  of 
the  most  benevolent  and  heroic  of  mankind.  That  religious 
error  was  itself  the  worst  of  crimes,  was  before  the  Reforma- 
tion the  universal  teaching  of  the  Christian  Church.  Can 
we  wonder  that  there  were  some  who  refused  to  regard  it  as 
an  Evangel  ? 

If  we  pursue  this  painful  subject  into  the  middle  ages,  we 
And  the  conception  of  jDunishment  by  literal  fire  elaborated 
with  more  detail.  The  doctrine,  too,  of  a  purgatory  even  for 
the  saved  had  grown  up.  Without  examining  at  length  the 
origin  of  this  last  tenet,  it  may  be  sufficient  to  say  that  it 
was  a  natural  continuation  of  the  doctrine  of  penance ;  that 
the  pagan  poets  had  had  a  somewhat  similar  conception, 
which  Virgil  introduced  into  his  famous  description  of  the 
regions  of  the  dead;  that  the  Manicha)ans  looked  forward  to 
a  strange  process  of  purification  after  death ;'  and  that  some 

'■  On  tlie  place  representations  of  Tartarus  had  in  the  mystei  ies,  see  Ma- 
gnin,  Oriffines  du  Theatre^  torn.  i.  pp.  81-84. 

^  The  Manichecans  arc  said  to  have  believed  that  the  souls  of  the  dead  were 
purified  in  the  sun ;  that  they  were  then  borne  in  the  moon  to  the  angels ;  and 
that  the  phases  of  the  moon  were  caused  by  the  increase  or  diminution  of  the 
freight.     (Bcausobre,  Hist.  CrUi(jn€  du  Jfanichcisme,  tom.  i.  pp.  243,  244.) 


320  EATIONALISM   TS   EUEOPE. 

of  the  Fatlicrs  appear  to  have  held  that  at  the  day  of  judg- 
ment all  men  must  pass  through  a  fire,  tliough  apparently 
rather  for  trial  than  for  purification,  as  the  A^rtuous  and 
orthodox  were  to  pass  unscathed,  while  bad  people  and  peo- 
ple with  erroneous  theological  oj^inions  were  to  he  burnt/ 
Besides  this,  the  doctrine  perhaps  softened  a  little  the  terror- 
ism of  eternal  punishment,  by  diminishing  the  number  of 
those  who  were  to  endure  it ;  though,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
represented  extreme  suffeiing  as  reserved  for  almost  all  men 
after  death.  It  may  be  added,  that  its  financial  advantages 
are  obvious  and  undeniable. 

There  was  in  the  tenth  century  one  striking  example  of  a 
theologian  following  in  the  traces  of  Origen,  and,  as  far  as  I 
know,  alone  in  the  middle  ages,  maintaining  the  fig'urative 
interpretation  of  the  fire  of  hell.  This  was  Jolm  Scotus 
Erigena,  a  very  remarkable  man,  who,  as  his  name  imports,' 
and  as  his  contemporaries  inform  us,  was  an  Irishman,  and 
wdio  appears  to  have  led,  for  the  most  part,  that  life  of  a  wan- 
dering scholar  for  which  his  countrymen  have  always  been 
fiimous.  His  keen  wit,  his  great  and  varied  genius,  and  his 
knowdedge  of  Greek,  soon  gained  him  an  immense  reputation. 
This  last  acquirement  was  then  extremely  rare,  but  it  had 
been  kept  up  in  the  Irish  monasteries  some  time  after  it  had 
disappeared  from  the  other  seminaries  of  Euroj^e.     Scotus 

*  Dallffius,  De  Fosnis  et  Satisfadionihus,  lib.  iv.  c.  9.  Some  of  the  ancients 
had  a  notion  about  fire  being  the  portal  of  the  unseen  world.  Herodotus  (lib. 
V.  c,  92)  tells  a  curious  story  about  Periander,  a  tyrant  of  Corinth,  who  in- 
voked the  shade  of  his  wife ;  but  she  refused  to  answer  his  questions,  alleging 
that  she  was  too  cold  ;  for  though  dresses  had  been  placed  in  her  tomb,  they 
were  of  no  use  to  her,  as  they  had  not  been  burnt. 

-  Scoti  was  at  first  the  name  of  the  Irish ;  it  was  afterwards  shared  and 
finally  monopolised  by  the  inhabitants  of  Scotland.  Erigena  means,  born  in 
Erin — the  distinctive  name  of  Ireland.  There  is  an  amusing  notice  of  Scotus 
Erigena  in  Matthew  of  Westminster  (An.  880). 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    EATIOXx\LISM.  621 

threw  himself  with  such  ardour  into  both  of  the  great  sys- 
tems of  Greek  philosophy,  that  some  have  regarded  him 
principally  as  the  last  I'epresentative  of  ISTeoplatonism,  and 
others  as  the  founder  of  Scholasticism/  He  disj^layed  on  all 
questions  a  singular  disdain  for  authority,  and  a  spirit  of  the 
boldest  free  thought,  which,  like  Origen,  with  whose  works 
he  was  j^i'ohably  much  imbued,  he  defended  by  a  lavish  em- 
ployment of  allegories.  Among  the  doctrines  he  disbelieved, 
and  therefore  treated  as  allegorical,  was  that  of  the  fire  ofhelh" 
Scotus,  however,  was  not  of  his  age.  The  material  con- 
ceptions of  mediajvalism  harmonised  admirably  with  the  ma- 
terial doctrine  ;  and  after  the  religious  terrorism  that  follow- 
ed the  twelfth  century,  that  doctrine  attained  its  full  elabo- 
ration. The  agonies  of  hell  seemed  then  the  central  fact  of 
religion,  and  the  pprpetual  subject  of  the  thoughts  of  men. 
The  whole  intellect  of  Europe  was  employed  in  illustrating 
them.  All  literature,  all  painting,  all  eloquence,  w^as  concen- 
trated upon  the  same  dreadful  theme.  By  the  pen  of  Dante 
and  by  the  pencil  of  Orcagna,  by  the  pictures  that  crowded 
every  church,  and  the  sermons  that  rang  from  every  pulpit, 
the  maddening  terror  was  sustained.  The  saint  was  often  per- 
mitted in  visions  to  behold  the  agonies  of  the  lost,  and  to  re- 
count the  spectacle  he  had  witnessed.  He  loved  to  tell  how  by 
the  lurid  glare  of  the  eternal  flames  he  had  seen  millions  writh- 
ing in  every  form  of  ghastly  suffering,  their  eyeballs  roll- 
ing with  unspeakable  anguish,  their  limbs  gashed  and  muti- 

^  lie  is  regarded  in  the  first  light  by  M.  Guizot  in  Lis  History  of  C'tvilisa- 
Hon  ;  and  in  the  second  by  M.  St.  Reno  Taillaudier,  in  his  able  and  learned 
(realise  on  Scotus. 

^  On  the  doctrines  of  Scotus,  and  especially  on  that  about  hell,  see  Tail- 

landicr,  Scot  Erif/enc,  pp.  IVG-ISO ;    Ampere,  Hist.  Litteraire  de  la  France^ 

torn.  iii.  p.  95  ;   Alexandri,  Hist.  Hcdes.,  torn.  vi.  pp.  3G1-363.     According  to 

this  last  writer,  Scotus  admitted  literal  torments  for  the  devil,  but  not  for  man. 

VOL.  I.— 21 


322  KATIOXALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

lated  and  quivering  with  pain,  tortured  by  pangs  that  seemed 
ever  keener  by  tlie  recurrence,  and  shrieking  in  vain  for  mer- 
cy to  an  unpitying  heaven.  Hideous  beings  of  dreadful  as- 
pect and  of  fantastic  forms  hovered  around,  mocking  them 
amid  their  torments,  casting  them  into  cauldrons  of  boiling 
brimstone,  or  inventing  new  tortures  more  subtle  and  more 
refined.  Amid  all  this  a  sulphur  stream  Avas  ever  seething, 
feeding  and  intensifying  the  waves  of  fire.  There  was  no 
respite,  no  alleviation,  no  hope.  The  tortures  were  ever 
varied  in  their  character,  and  they  never  palled  for  a  moment 
upon  the  sense.  Sometimes,  it  was  said,  the  flames  while  re- 
taining their  intensity  withheld  their  light.  A  shroud  of 
darkness  covered  the  scene,  but  a  ceaseless  shriek  of  anguish 
attested  the  agonies  that  were  below. ^ 

It  is  useless  to  follow  the  subject  into  detail.  We  may 
reproduce  the  ghastly  imagery  that  is  accumulated  in  the 
sermons  and  in  the  legends  of  the  age.  We  may  estimate 
the  untiring  assiduity  with  which  the  Catholic  priests  sought 
in  the  worst  acts  of  human  tyranny,  and  in  the  dark  recesses 
of  their  own  imaginations,  new  forms  of  torture,  to  ascribe 
them  to  the  Creator.  We  can  never  conceive  the  intense 
vividness  with  which  these  conceptions  were  realised,  or  the 
madness  and  the  misery  they  produced.  For  those  were 
ages  of  implicit  and  unfaltering  credulity ;  they  were  ages 
when  none  of  the  distractions  of  the  present  day  divided  the 
intellect,  and  when  theology  was  the  single  focus  upon  Avhich 
the  imagination  was  concentrated.  They  were  ages,  too, 
when  the  modern  tendency  to  soften  or  avoid  repulsive  im- 

^  The  details  of  many  of  these  visions  are  given  in  their  full  force  in  Swin- 
don ;  and  in  Plancy,  Didionnaire  Infernale^  art,  Enfcr.  Dean  Milmau,  in  his 
Hht.  of  Latin  Christiamty^  has  noticed  this  passion  for  detailed  pictures  of 
hell  (which  seems  to  date  from  St.  Gregory  the  Great)  with  bis  usual  force  and 
justice. 


DEVELOPMENTS   OF   EATIOXALISM.  323 

ages  was  altogether  unknown,  and  when,  in  the  general  pa- 
ralysis of  the  reason,  every  influence  was  exerted  to  stimulate 
the  imagination.  Wherever  the  worshipper  turned,  he  was 
met  by  new  forms  of  torture,  elaborated  with  such  minute 
detail,  and  enforced  Avith  such  a  vigour  and  distinctness,  that 
they  must  have  clung  for  ever  to  the  mind,  and  chilled  every 
natural  impulse  towards  the  Creator.  How,  indeed,  could  it 
be  otherwise  ?  Men  were  told  that  tlie  Almighty,  by  the 
fiat  of  his  uncontrolled  poAver,  had  called  into  being  count- 
less millions  whom  He  knew  to  be  destined  to  eternal,  excru- 
ciating, unspeakable  agony  ;  that  He  had  placed  millions  in 
such  a  position  that  such  agony  was  inevitable;  that  He  had 
prepared  their  place  of  torment,  and  had  kindled  its  undying 
flame ;  and  that,  prolonging  their  lives  for  ever,  in  order  that 
they  might  be  for  ever  wretched.  He  Avould  make  the  con- 
temj)lation  of  tliose  sufferings  an  essential  element  of  the 
happiness  of  the  redeemed.^  No  other  religious  teachers  had 
ever  proclaimed  such  tenets,  and  as  long  as  they  were  real- 
ised intensely,  the  benevolent  precepts  and  the  mild  and 
gentle  ideal  of  the  Xew  Testament  could  not  possibly  be  in- 
fluentiak  The  two  things  vrere  hopelessly  incongruous. 
The  sense  of  the  Divine  goodness  being  destroyed,  the  whole 
fabric  of  natural  religion  crumbled  in  the  dust.  Fi'om  that 
time  religion  was  necessarily  diverted  from  the  moral  to  the 
dogmatic,  and  became  an  artificial  tiling  of  relics  and  cere- 
monies, of  credulity  and  persecution,  of  asceticism  and  terror- 
isn].  It  centred  entirely  upon  the  priests,  who  supported  it 
mainly  by  intimidation. 

I  have  already,  when  examining  the  phenomena  of  witch- 

^  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  says,  '  Bcati  in  regno  coelesti  videbunt  poenas  darana- 
toruni,  UT  BEATiTUDO  iLLis  MASis  COMPLACEAT.'  {Summa  Siippl,  quEBst.  xciv. 
art.  1.) 


324  EATIOXALISM   IX   EUKOPE. 

craft,  noticed  the  influence  of  this  doctrine  upon  the  imagina- 
tion, which  it  has  probably  done  more  to  disease  than  ahnost 
all  other  moral  and  intellectual  agencies  combined.  I  shall 
hereafter  touch  upon  its  effects  upon  the  intellectual  history 
of  Europe — upon  the  timidity  and  disingenuousness  of  en- 
quiry, the  distrust  and  even  hatred  of  intellectual  honesty, 
it  encouraged.  There  is,  however,  a  still  more  painful  effect 
to  be  noticed.  That  the  constant  contemplation  of  suffering, 
especially  when  that  contemplation  is  devoid  of  passion,  has 
a  tendency  to  blunt  the  affections,  and  thus  destroy  the  emo- 
tional part  of  humanity,  is  one  of  the  most  familiar  facts  of 
common  observation.  The  law  holds  good  even  in  men,  like 
surgical  operators,  who  contemj^late  pain  solely  for  the  bene- 
fit of  others.  The  first  repulsion  is  soon  exchanged  for  indif- 
ference, the  indifference  speedily  becomes  interest,  and  the 
interest  is  occasionally  heightened  to  positive  enjoyment. 
Hence  the  anecdotes  related  of  surgeons  who  have  derived 
the  most  exquisite  pleasure  from  the  operations  of  their  pro- 
fession, and  of  persons  who,  being  unable  to  suppress  a  mor- 
bid delight  in  the  contemplation  of  suffering,  have  deter- 
mined to  utilise  their  defect,  and  have  become  the  most 
unflinching  operators  in  the  hosj^itals.  Xow  it  is  sufliciently 
manifest  that  upon  this  emotional  part  of  humanity  depends 
by  far  the  greater  number  of  kind  acts  that  are  done  in  the 
world,  and  especially  the  prevailing  ideal  and  standard  of 
Immanity.  There  are,  no  doubt,  persons  who  are  exceedingly 
benevolent  through  a  sense  of  duty,  while  their  temperament 
remains  entirely  callous.  There  are  even  cases  in  which  the 
callousness  of  temperament  increases  in  proportion  to  the 
active  benevolence,  for  it  is  acqujlred  in  contemplating  suffer- 
ing for  the  purpose  of  relieving  it,  and,  as  Bishop  ]3uller  re- 
minds us,  '  active  habits  are  strengthened,  wliile  passive  im- 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   RATIONALISM.  325 

pressions  are  weakened,  by  repetition.'  But  the  overwlielm- 
ing  majority  are  in  these  matters  governed  by  their  emotions. 
Their  standard  and  their  acts  depend  uj^on  the  liveliness  of 
their  feelings.  If  this  be  so,  it  is  easy  to  conceive  what 
must  have  been  the  result  of  the  contemplations  of  media3- 
valism.  There  is  a  fresco  in  the  great  monastery  of  Pavia 
which  might  be  regarded  as  the  emblem  of  the  age.  It  rep- 
resents a  monk  with  clasped  hands,  and  an  expression  of 
agonising  terror  upon  liis  countenance,  straining  over  the 
valley  of  vision  where  the  sufferings  of  the  lost  were  dis- 
played, while  the  inscription  above  reveals  his  one  harrowing 
thought,  '  Quis  sustinebit  ne  descendam  moriens  ? ' 

In  such  a  state  of  thought,  we  should  naturally  expect 
that  the  direct  and  poAverful  tendency  of  this  doctrine  would 
be  to  produce  a  general  indifference  to  human  sufferings,  or 
even  a  bias  towards  acts  of  barbarity.  Yet  this  only  gives 
an  inadequate  conception  of  its  effects.  For  not  only  were 
men  constantly  expatiating  on  these  ghastly  pictures,  they 
were  also  constantly  associating  them  with  gratitude  and 
with  joy.  They  believed  tliat  the  truth  of  Cliristianity  im- 
plied the  eternal  torture  of  a  vast  proportion  of  their  fellow- 
creatures,  and  they  believed  that  it  would  be  a  gross  impiety 
to  wish  that  Christianity  was  untrue.  They  had  collected 
with  such  assiduity,  and  had  interpreted  with  such  a  revolt- 
ing literalism,  every  rhetorical  passage  in  the  Bible  that 
could  be  associated  with  their  doctrine,  that  they  had  firmly 
persuaded  themselves  that  a  material  and  eternal  fire  formed 
a  central  truth  of  their  faith,  and  that,  in  the  words  of  an 
Anglican  clergyman,  *  the  hell  described  in  the  Gospel  is  not 
with  the  same  particularity  to  be  met  with  in  any  other  re- 
ligion that  is  or  hath  been  in  the  Avhole  world.'  ^     Habitually 

'  Swindon,  p.  129. 


32b  EATIONALISM   IN    EUROPE. 

treating  the  language  of  parable  as  if  it  was  the  Language  of 
history,  they  came  to  regard  it  as  very  truly  their  ideal  of 
happiness,  to  rest  for  ever  on  Abraham's  bosom,  and  to  con- 
template for  ever  the  torments  of  their  brother  in  hell.  They 
felt  with  St.  Augustine  that  'the  end  of  religion  is  to  be- 
come like  the  object  of  worship,'  and  they  represented  the 
Deity  as  confining  his  aifection  to  a  small  section  of  his  crea- 
tures, and  inflicting  on  all  others  the  most  horrible  and  eter- 
nal suffering. 

Now  it  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  when  doctrines  of  this 
kind  are  intensely  realised,  they  will  prove  most  efficacious 
in  dispelling  the  apathy  on  religious  subjects  which  is  the 
common  condition  of  mankind.  They  will  produce  great 
earnestness,  great  self-sacrifice,  great  singleness  of  purj)ose. 
Loyola,  who  had  studied  with  profound  sagacity  the  springs 
of  enthusiasm,  assigned  in  his  spiritual  exercises  an  entire 
day  to  be  spent  in  meditating  upon  eternal  damnation,  and 
in  most  great  religious  revivals  the  doctrine  has  occupied  a 
prominent  place.  It  is  also  undoubtedly  true,  that  in  a  few 
splendid  instances  the  efiect  of  this  realisation  has  been  to 
raise  up  missionary  teachers  of  such  heroic  and  disinterested 
zeal,  that  their  lives  are  among  the  grandest  pages  in  the 
whole  range  of  biography.  But  although  this  may  be  its 
effect  upon  some  singularly  noble  natures,  there  can  be  little 
question  that  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  its  tendency  will 
be  to  indurate  the  character,  to  diffuse  abroad  a  callousness 
and  insensibility  to  the  suffering  of  others  that  will  pro- 
foundly debase  humanity.  If  you  make  the  detailed  and 
exquisite  torments  of  multitudes  the  habitual  object  of  the 
thoughts  and  imaginations  of  men,  you  will  necessarily  j)ro- 
duce  in  most  of  them  a  gradual  indifference  to  human  suffer- 
ing, and  in  some  of  them  a  disposition  to  regard  it  with 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    KATIONALISM.  rflJ  i 

positive  delight.  If  you  further  assure  men  that  these  suf- 
ferings form  an  integral  part  of  a  revelation  which  they  are 
bound  to  regard  as  a  message  of  good  tidings,  you  will  in- 
duce them  to  stifle  every  feeling  of  pity,  and  almost  to  en- 
courage their  insensibility  as  a  virtue.  If  you  end  your 
teaching  by  telling  them  that  the  Being  who  is  the  ideal  of 
their  lives  confines  His  affection  to  the  members  of  a  single 
Church,  that  He  will  torture  for  ever  all  who  are  not  found 
within  its  pale,  and  that  His  children  will  for  ever  contem- 
plate those  tortures  in  a  state  of  unalloyed  felicity,  you  wiU 
prepare  the  way  for  every  form  of  persecution  that  can  be 
directed  against  those  who  are  without.  He  who  most  fully 
realised  these  doctrines,  would  be  the  most  unhappy  or  the 
most  unfeeling  of  mankind.  No  possible  prospect  of  indi- 
vidual bliss  could  reconcile  a  truly  humane  man,  who  followed 
the  impulse  of  his  humanity,  to  the  thought  that  those  who 
were  external  to  his  faith  were  destined  to  eternal  fire.  Xo 
truly  humane  man  could  avoid  wishing,  that  rather  than  this 
should  be  the  case,  he  and  all  others  should  sleep  the  sleep  of 
annihilation.  When  the  doctrine  Avas  intensely  realised  and 
implicitly  believed,  it  must,  therefore,  have  had  one  or  other 
of  two  effects.  It  must  have  produced  an  intensity  of  com- 
passion that  would  involve  an  extreme  unhappiness  and 
would  stimulate  to  extreme  heroism,  or  it  must  have  2^1*0- 
duced  an  absolute  callousness  and  a  positive  inclination  to 
inflict  suffering  upon  the  heretic.  ^It  does  not  require  much  ^ 
knowledge  of  human  nature  to  i^erceive  that  the  spirit  of 
Torquemada  must  be  more  common  than  that  of  Xavier. 

That  this  was  actually  the  case  must  be  evident  to  any 
one  who  is  not  wilfully  blind  to  the  history  of  Christendom. 
I  have  mentioned  that  writer  who  in  the  second  century 
dilated  most  emphalically  on  the  doctrine  of  eternal  punish- 


328  EATIOXALISM   IX   EUEOPE. 

ment  by  fire  as  a  means  of  intimidation.  In  another  of  his 
works  he  showed  very  clearly  the  influence  it  exercised  upon 
his  own  character.  He  had  written  a  treatise  dissuading  the 
Christians  of  his  day  from  frequenting  tlie  public  spectacles. 
He  had  collected  on  the  subject  many  arguments,  some  of 
them  very  powerful,  and  others  extremely  grotesque ;  but  he 
perceived  that  to  make  his  exhortations  forcible  to  the 
majority  of  his  readers,  he  must  jooint  them  to  some  counter- 
attraction.  He  accordingly  proceeded — and  his  style  as- 
sumed a  richer  glow  and  a  more  impetuous  eloquence  as  he 
rose  to  the  congenial  theme — to  tell  them  that  a  spectacle 
was  reserved  for  them,  so  fascinating  and  so  attractive  that 
the  most  joyous  festivals  of  earth  faded  into  insignificance  by 
the  comparison.  That  spectacle  was  the  agonies  of  their 
fellow-countrymen,  as  they  writhe  amid  the  torments  of  hell. 
'  What,'  he  exclaimed,  '  shall  be  the  magnitude  of  that  scene  ! 
How  shall  I  wonder  !  How  shall  I  laugh !  How  shall  I 
rejoice !  How  shall  I  triumph  when  I  behold  so  many  and 
such  illustrious  kings,  who  were  said  to  have  mounted  into 
heaven,  groaning  with  Jupiter  their  god  in  the  lowest  dark- 
ness of  hell !  Then  shall  the  soldiers  who  had  persecuted  the 
name  of  Christ  burn  in  more  cruel  fire  than  any  they  had 
kindled  for  the  saints.  .  .  .  Then  shall  the  tragedians  pour 
forth  in  their  own  misfortune  more  piteous  cries  than  those 
with  which  they  had  made  the  theatre  to  resound,  Avliile  tlie 
comedian's  powers  shall  be  better  seen  as  he  becomes  more 
flexible  by  the  heat.  Then  shall  the  driver  of  the  circus 
stand  forth  to  view  all  blushing  in  his  flaming  chariot,  and 
the  gladiators  pierced,  not  by  spears,  but  by  darts  of  fire. 
.  .  .  Compared  with  such  spectacles,  with  such  subjects 
of  triumph  as  these,  what  can  praetor  or  consul,  qua?stor  or 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   RATIONALISM.  329 

pontiff,  afFord  ?    And  even  now  faith  can  bring  them  near, 
imagination  can  depict  them  as  present.' ' 

I  liave  quoted  this  very  painful  passage  not  so  much  as 
an  instance  of  the  excesses  of  a  morbid  disposition  embit- 
tered by  persecution,  as  because  it  furnishes  a  striking  iUus- 
tration  of  the  influence  of  a  certain  class  of  realisations  on 
the  affections.  For  in  tracing  what  may  be  called  the 
psychological  history  of  Europe,  we  are  constantly  met  by  a 
great  contradiction,  which  can  only  be  explained  by  such 
considerations.  By  the  confession  of  all  parties,  the  Chris- 
tian religion  was  designed  to  be  a  religion  of  philanthropy, 
and  love  was  represented  as  the  distinctive  test  or  charac- 
teristic of  its  true  members.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  has 
probably  done  more  to  quicken  the  affc^ctions  of  mankind,  to 
promote  pity,  to  create  a  pure  and  merciful  ideal,  than  any 

^  '  Qua?  tunc  spectaculi  latitudo !  Quid  admirer !  Quid  rldeam  !  ubi 
gaiideam !  ubi  exultem,  spectans  tot  et  tantos  reges,  qui  in  ccelum  recepti 
nuntiafiflmtur,  cum  ipso  Jove  et  ipsis  suis  testibus  in  imis  tenebris  congemes- 
centos  !  Item  proesides  persecutores  dominici  nominis  Scsvioribus  quam  ipsi 
flammis  saevierunt  insultautibus  contra  Chrlstianos  liquescentes  !  quos  prteterea 
sapientes  illos  pliilosophos  coram  discipulis  suis  una  conflagrationibus  erubes- 
centes,  quibus  nihil  ad  Deum  pertinere  suadebant,  quibus  animas  aut  nullas 
aut  non  in  pristina  corpora  redituras  affirmabant !  Etiam  poetas  non  ad  PJiada- 
inanti  nee  ad  Minois,  sed  ad  inopinati  Christi  tribunal  palpitantes.  Tunc  magis 
tragoedi  audiendi  magis  scilicet  vocales  in  sua  propria  calamitate.  Tunc  his- 
triones  cognoscendi  solutiores  multo  per  igiiem.  Tunc  spectandus  auriga  in 
flammca  rota  totus  rubens ;  tunc  xystici  couteniplandi  non  in  gymnasiis  sed  in 
igne  jaculati ;  nisi  quod  ne  tunc  quidcm  illos  velim  visos,  ut  qui  malim  ad  cos 
potius  conspcctum  insatiabilem  conferre  qui  in  dominura  dessevierunt.  Hie 
est  ilia  dicam  fabri  aut  quasstuarioe  filius,  sabbati  destructor,  Samaritcs  ct 
da}raonium  liabens.  Hie  est  quem  a  Juda  rcdemistis,  liic  est  ille  arundinc  et 
colaphis  divcrberatus,  sputamentis  dcdecoratus,  fellc  et  aceto  potatus.  Ilic  est 
quem  clam  discentes  subripucrunt  ut  resurrexisse  dicatur,  vcl  hortulanus  dc- 
traxit  ne  lactuca?  suce  frcqucntia  commeantium  Isedcrcntur.  Ut  talia  spectcs,  ut 
talibus  exultes  quis  tibi  pi-retor,  aut  consul,  aut  quicstor,  aut  saccrdos  de  suS 
aJjeralitate  prcestabit  ?  Et  tamen  ha;c  jam  quodammodo  liabemus  per  fidcm 
spiritu  imaginante  reproesentata.'     (TertuUian,  De  Spcdac.^  cap.  xxx.) 


330  EATIOXALISM   ni   EUEOPE. 

otlicr  influence  that  has  ever  acted  on  the  world.  But  while 
the  marvellous  influence  of  Christianity  in  this  resj^ect  has 
been  acknowledged  by  all  who  have  mastered  the  teachings 
of  history,  while  the  religious  minds  of  every  land  and  of 
every  opinion  have  recognised  in  its.  Founder  the  highest 
conceivable  ideal  and  embodiment  of  compassion  as  of  purity, 
it  is  a  no  less  incontestable  truth  that  for  many  centuries  the 
Christian  priesthood  jjursued  a  policy,  at  least  towards  those 
who  differed  from  their  opinions,  implying  a  callousness  and 
absence  of  the  emotional  j^art  of  humanity  which  has  seldom 
been  paralleled,  and  perhaps  never  surpassed.  From  Julian, 
who  observed  that  no  wild  beasts  were  so  ferocious  as  angry 
theologians,  to  Montesquieu,  who  discussed  as  a  psychologi- 
cal phenomenon  the  inhumanity  of  monks,  the  fact  has  been 
constantly  recognised.  The  monks,  the  Inquisitors,  and  in 
general  the  mediaeval  clergy,  present  a  tyj)e  that  is  singularly 
well  defined,  and  is  in  many  respects  exceedingly  noble,  but 
which  is  continually  marked  by  a  total  absence  of  mere 
natural  affection.  In  zeal,  in  courage,  in  j^erseverance,  in 
self-sacrifice,  they  towered  far  above  the  average  of  mankind ; 
but  they  were  always  as  ready  to  inflict  as  to  endure  suffer- 
ing. These  were  the  men  who  chanted  their  Te  Dcums  over 
the  massacre  of  the  Albigenses  or  of  St.  Bartholomew,  who 
fanned  and  stimulated  the  Crusades  and  the  religious  wars, 
who  exulted  over  the  carnage,  and  strained  every  nerve  to 
prolomr  the  strusfffle, — and,  when  the  zeal  of  the  warrior  had 
begun  to  flag,  mourned  over  the  languor  of  fliith,  and  con- 
templated the  sufferings  they  had  caused  with  a  satisfaction 
that  was  as  pitiless  as  it  was  unselfish.  These  were  the  men 
who  were  at  once  tlie  instigators  and  the  agents  of  that 
horrible  detailed  persecution  that  stahied  -almost  every 
province  of  Europe  with  the  blood  of  Jews  and  lieretics,  and 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   KATIOXALIS:\r.  331 

vrliicli  exhibits  an  aniount  of  cold,  passionless,  studied,  and 
deliberate  barbarity  unrivalled  in  tlie  liistory  of  mankind/ 

Xow,  when  a  tendency  of  this  kind  is  habitually  exhibited 
among  men  who  are  unquestionably  actuated  by  the  strongest 
sense  of  duty,  it  may  be  assumed  that  it  is  connected  with 
some  i^rinciple  they  have  adopted,  or  with  the  moral  atmos- 
phere they  breathe.  It  must  have  an  intellectual  or  logical 
antecedent,  and  it  must  have  what  may  be  termed  an 
emotional  antecedent.  By  the  first  I  understand  certain 
principles  or  trains  of  reasoning  which  induce  men  to  believe 
that  it  is  their  duty  to  persecute.  By  the  second  I  under- 
stand a  tendency  or  disposition  of  feeling  that  harmonises 
with  persecution,  removes  the  natural  reluctance  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  predisposes  men  to  accept  any  reasoning  of  which 
persecution  is  the  conclusion.  The  logical  antecedents  of 
persecution  I  shall  examine  in  the  next  chapter.  The  most 
imjDortant  emotional  antecedent  is,  I  believe,  to  be  found  in 
the  teaching  concerning  the  future  world.  It  was  the  natu- 
ral result  of  that  teaching,  that  men  whose  lives  present  in 
many  resj^ects  examples  of  the  noblest  virtue,  Avere  never-, 
theless  conspicuous  for  ages  as  prodigies  of  barbarity,  and 
proved  absolutely  indifferent  to  the  sufferings  of  all  who 
dissented  from  their  doctrines.  Kor  was  it  only  towards  the 
heretic  that  this  inliumanity  was  displayed ;  it  was  reflected 

^  We  shall  have  ample  evidence  of  this  in  the  next  chapter.  At  present  it 
is  suflScient  to  say  that  the  use  of  the  slow  fire  in  burning  heretics  Avas  in  many 
districts  habitual.  In  that  curious  book,  the  Scaligcrana  (a  record  of  the  con- 
versation of  Joseph  Scaliger,  by  an  intimate  friend  who  lived  in  his  house),  we 
have  a  horrible  description  of  one  of  these  executions  in  Guienne  :  '  J'avois 
environ  seize  ans  que  je  vis  brusler  un  Jacobin  qui  fermoit  la  bouche  aux 
I'apistes :  on  le  degrada  et  on  Ic  bnisla  i\  petit  feu,  le  liant  avec  dcs  cordes 
mouillees  par  les  aisselles  pros  la  potcnce,  et  hi  on  mettoit  le  feu  dessous  telle- 
ment  qu'il  estoit  demy  consume  avant  qu'il  fat  mort.'  (Art.  Heretici.  See, 
too,  art.  Sorcicrs.)     Sec,  too,  Cousin's  account  of  the  execution  of  Vaniui. 


332  KATIOXALISM   IX    EUKOPE. 

more  or  less  in  tlie  whole  penal  system  of  the  time.  We 
have  a  striking  exam2)le  of  this  in  the  history  of  torture.  In 
ancient  Greece,  torture  was  never  employed  except  in  cases 
of  treason.  In  the  best  days  of  ancient  Rome,  notwithstand- 
ing the  notorious  inhumanity  of  the  people,  it  was  exclusive- 
ly confined  to  the  slaves.  In  mediaeval  Christendom  it  was 
made  use  of  to  an  extent  that  was  probably  unexampled  in 
any  earlier  period,  and  in  cases  that  fell  under  the  cogni- 
sance of  the  clergy  it  was  applied  to  every  class  of  the  com- 
munity.^ And  what  strikes  us  most  in  considering  the  me- 
dioeval  tortures,  is  not  so  much  their  diabolical  barbarity, 
which  it  is  indeed  impossible  to  exaggerate,  as  the  extraordi- 
nary variety,  and  what  may  be  termed  the  artistic  skill,  they 
displayed.  They  represent  a  condition  of  thf)ught  in  which 
men  had  pondered  long  and  carefully  on  all  the  forms  of  suf- 
fering, had  compared  and  combined  the  different  kinds  of 
torture,  till  they  had  become  the  most  consummate  masters 
of  their  art,  had  expended  on  the  subject  all  the  resources  of 
the  utmost  ingenuity,  and  had  pursued  it  with  the  ardour  of 
a  passion.  The  system  was  matured  under  the  mediieval 
habit  of  thought,  it  was  adopted  by  the  inquisitors,  and  it 
received  its  finishing  touches  from  their  ingenuity."     In  every 

^  la  cases  of  heresy  and  treason,  but  the  first  were  of  course  by  far  the 
most  common.  As  one  of  the  old  authorities  on  the  subject  says :  '  In  crimine 
hseresis  omnes  illi  torquendi  sunt  qui  in  crimine  la?s;e  majestatis  huraanae  tor- 
queri  possunt ;  quia  longe  gravius  est  divinum  quam  temporalem  liedere 
majestatem,  ac  proinde  nobiles,  milites,  decurioncs,  doctores,  et  omnes  qui 
quantaUbet  prcerogativii  pra^fulgent  in  crimine  bfcresis  et  in  crimine  la3sae 
majestatis  human jb  torqueri  possunt  .  .  .  quo  fit  quod  miuores  viginti 
quinque  annis  propter  suspicionem  haeresis  et  laesse  majestatis  torqueri  possunt, 
mmores  etiam  quatuordecem  annis  terreri  et  habena  vel  ferula  ca^di.'  (Suarez 
de  Paz,  Praxis  Ecclcsiastica  ct  Scecularls  [1619],  p.  158.) 

"  The  extraordinary  ingenuity  of  the  mediaeval  tortures,  and  the  extent  to 
which  they  were  elaborated  by  the  clergy,  is  well  shown  in  an  article  on  tor- 
uve  by  Yillegillef  in  Lacroix,  Le  Ifoi/cn  Ag(  ct  la  Ecnalsmnce  (Paris,  1848), 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    EATIOXALISM.  333 

prison  tlie  crucifix  and  the  rack  stood  side  by  side,'  and  in  al- 
most every  country  the  abolition  of  torture  was  at  last  ef- 
fected by  a  movement  which  the  Church  opposed,  and  by 
men  whom  she  had  cursed.  In  England,  it  is  true,  torture 
had  always  been  illegal,  though  it  had  often  been  employed, 
especially  in  ecclesiastical  cases ;  ^  but  almost  every  other 
country  illustrates  tlie  position  I  have  stated.  In  France, 
probably  the  first  illustrious  opponent  of  torture  was  Mon- 
taigne, the  first  of  the  French  sceptics ;  the  cause  was 
soon  afterwards  taken  up  by  Charron  and  by  Bayle ;  it 
was  then  adopted  by  Yoltaire,  Montesquieu,  and  the  En- 
cyclopaedists;  and  it  finally  triumphed  when  the  Church 
had   been   shattered   by  the   Revolution.'*      In    Spain,   tor- 

torn.  iii.  The  original  Avorks  on  the  subject  are  very  numerous,  and  possess  a 
great  but  painful  interest.  Perhaps  the  fullest  is  Marsilius'  (a  lawyer  of 
Bologna)  Tradatus  de  Qucestionihis  (1529  and  1537 — both  editions  in  black 
letter).  Marsihus  boasted  that  he  was  the  inventor  of  the  torture  that  con- 
sisted of  depriving  the  prisoner  of  all  sleep — a  torture  which  was  especially 
used  in  the  States  of  the  Church :  '  In  Statu  Ecclesiastico  hi  duo  modi  magis 
in  usu  sunt,  ut  et  tormentum  taxillorum,  et  vigilioe  per  somni  subtractionem, 
quem  modum  invenisse  asserit  Marsilius.'  ( Chartarw  Praxis  Interrogandum 
Reorum  [Roma?,  1618],  p.  198.)  Besides  these  works,  there  are  full  accounts 
of  the  nature  of  the  tortures  in  Simancas'  Be  CathoUcis  Imtitutio?iibus, 
Eymericus'  Dlrectorium  InquisHorvm,  and  many  other  works  to  which  they 
refer. 

^  On  the  extent  to  which  it  was  employed  by  the  Catholics,  under  Mary,  in 
the  trials  of  Protestants,  see  Strutt's  Manners  of  the  English  Fcoplc^  vol.  iii. 
p.  46  ;  and  on  the  extent  to  which  it  was  employed  by  Protestants  in  the  trials 
of  Catholic  priests,  see  Hallam,  Comt  Hist  (ed.  1827),  vol.  i.  p.  159  ;  and  the 
evidence  collected  in  Milner's  Letters  to  a  Prebendary.  Bishops  Griudal  and 
Coxe  suggested  the  application  of  torture  to  the  Catholic  priests.  (Froude, 
Hisi.^  vol.  vii.  pp.  418,  419.)  See,  too,  Barrington  On  the  Statutes,  pp.  80,  and 
440,  441.  • 

^  The  suppression  of  one  department  of  torture  was  effected  in  France  as 
early  as  1780,  and  was  one  of  the  measures  of  reform  conceded  to  the  revolu- 
tionary party.  All  torture,  however,  was  not  abolished  till  the  Revolution  waa 
actually  triumphant,  and  the  abolition  was  one  of  the  first  acts  of  the  demo- 
crats.    (See  Loiselev.r,  Sur  les  Pcines.)     Besides  the  essays  of  Montaigne, 


33J:  EATIOXALISM    11^    EUROPE. 

ture  began  to  fall  into  disuse  under  Charles  III.,  on  one  of 
the  few  occasions  when  the  Government  was  in  direct  oppo- 
sition to  the  Church.^  In  Italy  the  great  oj^ponent  of  tor- 
ture was  Beccaria,  the  friend  of  Helvetius  and  of  Holbach, 
and  the  avowed  exponent  of  the  principles  of  Kousseau.* 
Translated  by  Morellet,  commented  on  by  Voltaire  and 
Diderot,  and  supported  by  the  whole  weight  of  the  French 
philosophers,  the  work  of  Beccaria  flew  triumphantly  over 
Europe,  and  vastly  accelerated  the  movement  that  produced 
it.  Under  the  influence  of  that  movement,  the  Empress  of 
Russia  abolished  torture  in  her  dominions,  and  accompanied 
the  abolition  by  an  edict  of  toleration.  Under  the  same 
influence  Frederick  of  Prussia,  whose  adherence  to  the  j^hil- 
osophical  principles  was  notorious,  took  the  same  step,  and 
his  example  was  speedily  followed  by  Duke  Leopold  of  Tus- 
cany. N^or  is  there,  upon  reflection,  anything  surprising  in 
this.  The  movement  that  destroyed  torture  was  much  less 
an  intellectual  than  an  emotional  movement.     It  represented 

torture  v/as  denounced  in  the  Sagesse  of  Charrou,  in  the  Contrains-les  Entrcr 
of  Bayle,  and  in  many  parts  of  the  writings  of  Yoltaire  (see,  e.  g.,  art.  Torture, 
in  Fldl.  Diet.)  and  his  contemporaries. 

^  Buckle's  Hkt^  vol.  ii.  p.  140,  note.  Luis  Vives,  a  rather  famous  Spanish 
philosopher,  in  his  Annotations  to  St.  Augustine,  had  protested  against  torture 
as  early  as  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century.  His  opinions  on  this  sub. 
jcct  were  vehemently  denounced  by  a  bishop  named  Simancas,  in  a  very  re- 
markable book  called  De  Cathollcis  Listitutionihics  ad  prcecavcndas  et  exiir- 
vamlcs  Hcereses  (1569),  to  which  I  shall  have  occasion  hereafter  to  refer. 
Simancas  observes  that  '  Inquisitores  Apostolici  saepissime  reos  torquere  so- 
lent  ; '  he  defends  the  practice  with  great  energy,  on  the  authority  of  theolo- 
gians ;  and  he  gives  a  very  vivid  description  of  different  modes  of  torture  the 
Inquisitors  employed  in  their  dealings  with  heretics  (pp.  297-309.)  Sec  also, 
on  this  horrible  subject,  Lloronte,  Hist,  of  the  laquls'dion.  Simanacas  notices 
that,  in  other  countries,  criminals  were  in  his  day  tortured  in  i)ublio,  but  in 
Spain  in  secret  (p.  305). 

^  On  the  influence  of  Beccaria,  see  Loiseleur,  pp.  335-338.  Morellet'a 
translation  passed  through  seven  editions  in  six  months. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    KATIONALISM.  335 

much  less  a  discovery  of  the  reason  than  an  increased  in 
tensity  of  sympathy.  If  we  asked  what  positi^^e  arguments 
can  he  adduced  on  the  suhject,  it  Avoukl  be  difficult  to  cite 
any  that  was  not  perfectly  familiar  to  all  classes  at  every 
period  of  the  middle  ages.^  That  brave  criminals  sometimes 
escaped,  and  that  timid  persons  sometimes  falsely  declared 
themselves  guilty ;  that  the  guiltless  frequently  underwent 
a  horrible  punishment,  and  that  the  moral  influence  of  legal 
decisions  was  seriously  weakened  '^ — these  arguments,  and 
such  as  these,  were  as  much  truisms  in  the  eleventh  and 
twelftli  centuries  as  they  are  at  present.  Nor  was  it  by 
such  means  that  the  change  was  effected.  Torture  was 
abolished  because  in  the  progress  of  civilisation  tlie  sympa- 
thies of  men  became  more  expansive,  their  perceptions  of 
the  sufferings  of  others  more  acute,  their  judgmcDts  more 
indulgent,  their  actions  more  gentle.  To  subject  even  a 
guilty  man  to  the  horrors  of  the  rack  seemed  atrocious  and 
barbarous,  and  therefore  the  rack  was  destroyed.  It  was 
part  of  the  great  movement  which  abolished  barbarous  amuse- 
ments, mitigated  the  asperities  and  refined  the  manners  of  all 
classes.  Now  it  is  quite  certain  that  those  who  seriously 
regarded  eternal  suffering  as  the  just  punishment  of  the  fret- 
fulness  of  a  child,  could  not  possibly  look  upon  torture  with 
the  same  degree  and  kind  of  repulsion  as  their  less  orthodox 
neighbours.     It  is  also  certain,  that  a  period  in  which  religion, 


*  There  is,  perhaps,  one  exception  to  this,  Beccaria  grounded  much  of  his 
reasoning  on  the  doctrine  of  the  social  compact,  I  cannot,  however,  think 
that  this  argument  had  much  influence  in  producing  the  ciiauge. 

^  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  St,  Augustine  perceived  very  dearly  the  evil 
of  torture,  and  stated  the  case  against  it  with  his  usual  force  and  terseness : 
*  Cum  quasritur  utrum  sit  nocens  cruciatur  et  innocens  luit  pro  inccrto  scelere 
certissimas  poenas '  {De  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  xix.  cap,  6) ;  but  he  concluded  that  it 
was  necessary. 


336  KATIOXALISM   IN    EUROPE. 

hj  dwelling  incessantly  on  the  legends  of  tlie  martyrs,  or  on 
tlie  agonies  of  the  lost,  made  the  combination  of  new  and 
horrible  forms  of  suffering  the  habitual  employment  of  the 
imagination,  was  of  all  others  that  in  which  the  system  of 
torture  was  likely  to  be  most  atrocious.  It  may  be  added, 
that  the  very  frame  of  mind  that  made  men  assail  the  practice 
of  torture,  made  them  also  assail  the  mediaeval  doctrine  of 
future  punishment.  The  two  things  grew  out  of  the  same 
condition  of  society.  They  flourished  together,  and  they  de- 
clined together. 

The  truth  is,  that  in  every  age  the  penal  code  Avill  in  a 
great  degree  vary  with  the  popular  estimate  of  guilt.  Phi- 
losophers have  written  much  on  the  purely  preventive  char- 
acter of  legal  punishments;  but  it  requires  but  little  knowl- 
edge of  history,  or  even  of  human  nature,  to  show  that  a  code 
constructed  altogether  on  such  a  principle  is  impossible.  It 
is  indeed  true,  that  all  acts  morality  condemns  do  not  fall 
within  the  province  of  the  legislator,  and  that  this  fact  is 
more  fully  appreciated  as  civilisation  advances.^  It  is  true, 
too,  that  in  an  early  stage,  the  severity  of  punishment  results 
in  a  great  measure  from  the  prevailing  indifference  to  the 
infliction  of  suffering.  It  is  even  true  that  the  especial  prom- 
inence or  danger  of  some  crime  will  cause  men  to  visit  it  for 
a  time  with  penalties  that  seem  to  bear  no  proportion  to  its 
moral  enormity.  Yet  it  is,  I  think,  impossible  to  examine 
penal  systems  without  perceiving  that  they  can  only  be 
eflicient  during  a  long  period  of  time,  when  they  accord  sub 
stantially  with  the  popular  estimate  of  the  enormity  of  guilt. 

^  The  tendency  of  all  penal  systems  constructed  under  the  influence  of  the 
clergy  to  make  the  legal  code  coextensive  with  the  moral  code,  and  to  make 
punishments  as  much  as  possible  of  the  nature  of  expiation,  is  well  known. 
As  a  modern  instance  of  this,  Sweden  is  perhaps  the  most  remarkable.  See 
fhe  striking  book  of  Mr.  Laing,  upon  its  present  condition. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    ."KATIOXALISM.  66  i 

Every  system,  by  admitting  extenuating  circmiistances  and 
graduated  punishments,  implies  this,  and  every  judgment 
that  is  passed  by  the  public  is  virtually  an  appeal  to  an  ideal 
standard.  AYhen  a  punishment  is  pronounced  excessive,  it  is 
meant  that  it  is  greater  than  was  deserved.  When  it  is  pro- 
nounced inadequate,  it  is  meant  that  it  is  less  than  was  de- 
ser-s'ed.  Even  regarding  the  law  simply  as  a  preventive 
measure,  it  is  necessary  that  it  should  thus  reflect  the  prevail- 
ing estimate  of  guilt,  for  otherwise  it  would  come  into  col- 
lision vrith  that  public  opinion  whicli  is  essential  to  its 
oj)eration.  Thus,  towards  the  close  of  the  last  century,  both 
murder  and  horse-stealing  were  punished  by  death.  In  the 
first  case,  juries  readily  brought  in  verdicts,  the  public 
sanctioned  those  verdicts,  and  the  law  was  efficacious.  In 
the  second  case,  the  criminals  were  almost  usually  acquitted ; 
and  when  they  were  executed,  public  opinion  was  shocked 
and  scandalised.  The  reason  of  this  was,  that  men  looked 
upon  death  as  a  punishment  not  incommensurate  with  the 
guilt  of  murder,  but  exceedingly  disj^roportionate  to  that 
of  theft.  In  the  advance  of  civilisation,  there  is  a  con- 
stant tendency  to  mitigate  the  severity  of  penal  codes,  for 
men  learn  to  realise  more  intensely  tiie  sufiering  they  are 
inflicting ;  and  they  at  the  same  time  become  more  sensible 
of  the  palliations  of  guilt.  When,  however,  such  a  doctrine 
concerning  the  just  reward  of  crime  as  I  have  noticed  is  be- 
lieved and  realised,  it  must  inevitably  have  the  effect  of  re- 
tarding the  progress. 

Such,  then,  were  the  natural  eflects  of  the  popular  teach- 
ing on  the  subject  of  future  punishment  which  was  universal 
during  the  middle  ages,  and  during  the  sixteenth  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  How  completely 
that  teaching  has  passed  away  must  be  evident  to  any  one 
VOL.  I.— 22 


338  EATIOXALISM   IN    EUROPE. 

wlio  will  take  the  pains  of  comparing-  old  theological  litera> 
tnre  with  modern  teaching.  The  hideous  pictures  of  ma- 
terial fire  and  of  endless  torture  which  were  once  so  careful- 
ly elaborated  and  so  constantly  enforced,  have  been  replace:^^! 
by  a  few  vague  sentences  on  the  subject  of 'perdition,'  or  by 
the  general  assertion  of  a  future  adjustment  of  the  inequalities 
of  life ;  and  a  doctrine  which  grows  out  of  the  moral  faculty, 
and  is  an  element  in  every  truly  moral  religion,  has  been 
thus  silently  substituted  for  a  doctrine  which  was  the  great- 
est of  all  moral  difficulties.  The  eternity  of  punishment  is, 
indeed,  still  strenuously  defended  by  many ;  but  the  nature 
of  that  punishment,  which  had  been  one  of  the  most  promi- 
nent points  in  every  previous  discussion  on  the  subject,  has 
now  completely  disappeared  from  controversy.  The  ablest 
theologians  once  regarded  their  doctrine  as  one  that  might 
be  defended,  but  could  not  possibly  be  so  stated  as  not  at 
first  sight  to  shock  the  feelings.  Liebnitz  argued  that  of- 
fences against  an  infinite  Being  acquired  an  infinite  guilt, 
and  therefore  deserved  an  infinite  punishment.  Butler  ar- 
gued that  the  analogy  of  nature  gave  much  reason  to  suspect 
that  the  punishment  of  crimes  may  be  out  of  all  proportion 
with  our  conceptions  of  their  guilt.  Both,  by  their  very  de- 
fences, implied  that  the  doctrine  was  a  grievous  difficulty. 
As,  however,  it  is  commonly  stated  at  present,  the  doctrine 
is  so  far  from  being  a  difficulty,  that  any  system  that  was 
Avithout  it  would  be  manifestly  imperfect,  and  it  has  accord- 
ingly long  since  taken  its  place  as  one  of  the  moral  evidences 
of  Christianity. 

This  gradual  and  silent  transformation  of  the  popular 
conceptions  is  doubtless  chiefly  due  to  tlie  habit  of  educing 
moral  and  intellectual  truths  from  our  own  sense  of  riglit, 
rather  than  from  traditional  teaching,  which  has  accompa- 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF    KATIOXALISM.  330 

nied  the  decline  of  dogmatic  theology,  and  which  first  became 
conspicuous  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Descartes,  who 
was  the  chief  reviver  of  moral  philosophy,  may  be  regarded 
as  its  leading  originator ;  for  the  method  which  he  applied 
to  metaphysical  enquiries  was  soon  applied  (consciously  or 
unconsciously)  to  moral  subjects.  Men,  when  seeking  for 
just  ideas  of  right  and  wrong,  began  to  interrogate  their 
moral  sense  much  more  than  the  books  of  theologians,  and 
they  soon  proceeded  to  make  that  sense  or  faculty  a  supreme 
arbiter,  and  to  mould  all  theology  into  conformity  with  its 
dictates.  At  the  same  time  the  great  increase  of  similar  in- 
fluences, and  the  rapid  succession  of  innovations,  made  theo- 
logians yield  with  comparative  facility  to  the  pressure  of 
their  age. 

But  besides  this  general  rationalistic  movement,  there 
was  another  tendency  which  exercised,  I  think,  a  real  though 
minor  influence  on  the  movement,  and  which  is  also  associ- 
ated with  the  name  of  Descartes.  I  mean  the  development 
of  a  purely  spiritual  conception  of  the  soul.  The  different 
effects  which  a  spiritual  or  a  material  philosophy  lias  exer- 
cised on  all  departments  of  speculation,  form  one  of  the 
most  interesting  pages  iii  history.  The  ancients — at  least 
the  most  spiritual  schools — seem  to  have  generally  regarded 
the  essence  of  the  soul  as  an  extremely  subtle  fluid,  or  sub- 
stance quite  distinct  from  the  body ;  and,  according  to  their 
view,  and  according  to  the  views  that  were  long  afterwards 
prevalent,  this  excessive  subtlety  of  essence  constituted  imma- 
teriality. For  the  soul  was  supposed  to  be  of  a  nature  to- 
tally different  from  surrounding  objects,  simple,  incapable  of 
disintegration,  and  emancipated  from  the  conditions  of  mat- 
ter. Some  of  the  Platonists  verged  very  closely  upon,  and 
perhaps  attained,  the  modern  idea  of  a  soul  whose  essence 


340  PuATIOXALISM   m   EUPwOPE. 

is  purely  intellectual;  but  tlie  general  opinion  was,  I  thinly 
that  which  I  have  described.  The  distinct  and,  as  it  was 
called,  immaterial  nature  of  the  soul  was  insisted  on  by  the 
ancients  with  great  emphasis  as  the  chief  proof  of  its  im- 
mortality. If  mind  be  but  a  function  of  matter,  if  thought 
be  but  '  a  material  product  of  the  brain,'  it  seems  natural 
that  the  dissolution  of  the  body  should  be  the  annihilation 
of  the  individual.  There  is,  indeed,  an  instinct  in  man 
pointing  to  a  future  sphere,  where  the  injustices  of  life  shall 
be  rectified,  and  where  the  chain  of  love  that  death  has  sev- 
ered shall  be  linked  anew,  which  is  so  closely  connected  with 
our  moral  nature  that  it  Avould  perhaps  survive  the  rudest 
shocks  of  a  material  philosophy  ;  but  to  minds  in  which  thcj 
logical  element  is  most  prominent,  the  psychological  argu- 
ment will  always  appear  the  most  satisfactory.  That  there 
exists  in  man  an  indivisible  being  connected  with,  but  essen- 
tially distinct  from  the  body,  was  the  position  which  Socrates 
dwelt  upon  as  one  of  the  chief  foundations  of  his  hopes  in 
the  last  hours  of  his  life,  and  Cicero  in  the  shadow  of  age  ; 
and  the  whole  moral  system  of  the  school  of  Plato  was  based 
upon  the  distinction.  Man,  in  their  noble  imagery,  is  the 
horizon  line  where  the  world  of  spirit  and  the  Avorld  of  mat- 
ter touch.  It  is  in  his  power  to  rise  by  the  wings  of  the 
soul  to  communion  with  the  gods,  or  to  sink  by  the  gravita- 
tion of  the  body  to  the  level  of  the  brute.  It  is  the  destiny 
of  the  soul  to  pass  from  state  to  state ;  all  its  knowledge  is 
but  remembrance,  and  its  future  condition  must  be  deter- 
mined by  its  present  tendency.  The  soul  of  that  man  who 
aspires  only  to  virtue,  and  who  despises  the  luxury  and  the 
passions  of  earth,  will  be  emancipated  at  last  from  the  thral- 
dom of  matter,  and,  invisible  and  unshackled,  will  drink  in 
perfect  bliss  in  the  full  fruition  of  wisdom.     The  soul  of  that 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   EATIONALISM.  6±L 

man  who  seeks  Ms  cliief  gratification  in  the  body,  will  after 
death  be  imprisoned  in  a  new  body,  Avill  be  punished  by 
physical  suffering,  or,  visible  to  the  human  eye,  will  appear 
upon  earth  in  the  form  of  a  ghost  to  scare  the  survivors  amid 
their  pleasure/ 

Such  were  the  opinions  that  were  held  by  the  school  of 
Plato,  the  most  spiritual  of  all  the  philosophers  of  antiquity. 
When  Christianity  appeai'ed  in  the  world,  its  first  tendency 
was  very  favourable  to  these  conceptions,  for  it  is  the  effect 
of  every  great  moral  enthusiasm  to  raise  men  above  the  ap- 
petites of  the  body,  to  present  to  the  mind  a  supersensual 
ideal,  and  to  accentuate  strongly  the  antagonism  by  which 
human  nature  is  convulsed.  We  accordingly  find  that  in  its 
earlier  and  better  days  tlie  Church  assimilated  especially  with 
the  philosophy  of  Plato,  while  in  the  middle  ages  Aristotle 
was  supreme;  and  we  also  find  that  the  revival  of  Platonism 
accompanied  the  spiritualising  movement  that  preceded  the 
Reformation.  Yet  there  were  two  doctrines  that  produced 
an  opposite  tendency.  The  pagans  asserted  the  immateriality 
of  the  soul,  because  they  believed  that  the  body  must  perish 
for  ever ;  and  some  of  the  Christians,  in  denying  this  latter 
position,  were  inclined  to  reject  the  distinction  that  was  based 
upon  it.  But  above  all,  the  firm  belief  in  punishment  by 
fire,  and  the  great  prominence  the  doctrine  soon  obtained, 
became  the  foundation  of  the  material  view.  The  Fathers 
were  early  divided  upon  the  subject.^     One  section,  compris- 

'  This  theory  is  developed  in  the  Phcedon.  The  Greeks  had  an  extreme 
tear  of  the  dead,  and  consequently  a  strong  predisposition  to  see  ghosts. 

^  '  Not  one  of  them  (the  early  Fathers)  entertained  the  same  opinion  as  the 
majority  of  Christians  do  at  the  present  day,  that  the  soul  is  perfectly  simple, 
and  entirely  destitute  of  all  body,  figure,  form,  and  extension.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  all  acknowledge  it  to  contain  something  corporeal,  although  of  a 
different  kind  and  nature  irora  tlie  bodies  of  this  mortal  sphere.     But  yet  the} 


342  EATIONALISM   IM    EUROPE. 

hig  the  ablest  and  the  best,  maintained  that  there  existed  in 
man  an  immaterial  sonl,  but  that  that  soul  was  invariably 
associated  with  a  thin,  flexible,  but  sensitive  body,  visible  to 
the  eye.  Origen  added  that  the  Deity  alone  could  exist  as  a 
pure  spirit  unallied  with  matter.^  The  other  school,  of  which 
Tertullian  may  be  regarded  as  the  chief,  utterly  denied  the 
existence  in  man  of  any  incorporeal  element,  maintained  that 
the  soul  was  simply  a  second  body,  and  based  this  doctrine 
chiefly  on  the  conception  of  future  punishment."  Appa- 
ritions were  at  that  time  regarded  as  frequent.  Tertullian 
mentions  a  woman  who  had  seen  a  soul,  which  she  described 
as  '  a  transparent  and  lucid  figure  in  the  perfect  form  of  a 
man.' '  St.  Antony  saw  the  soul  of  Ammon  carried  up  to 
heaven.  The  soul  of  a  Libyan  hermit  named  Marc  was 
borne  to  heaven  in  a  napkin.     Angels  also  were  not  unfre- 

are  diTided  into  two  opinions.  Foi'  some  contend  that  there  are  two  things  in 
the  soul — spirit,  and  a  very  thin  and  subtle  body  in  which  this  spirit  is  clothed. 
.  .  .  Those  who  follow  Plato  and  the  Platonists  (i.  e.  Clement,  Origen,  and 
their  disciples),  adopt  the  Platonic  doctrine  respecting  the  soul  also,  and  pro- 
nounce it  to  be  most  simple  in  itself,  but  yet  always  invested  with  a  subtle 
body.  But  the  others,  Avho  keep  far  aloof  from  Plato,  and  consider  his  philos- 
ophy to  be  prejudicial  to  Christian  principles,  repudiate  this  doctrine  of  his  as 
well,  and  maintain  that  the  soul  altogether  is  nothing  more  than  a  most  subtle 
body.  .  .  .  They  very  frequently  assail  the  Platonists  with  bitter  invec- 
tives, for  inculcating  that  the  soul  is  of  a  nature  most  simple,  and  devoid  of 
all  concretion.' — Note  by  Mosheim  to  Cudworth's  Litdl.  System  (Harrison's 
ed.),  vol.  iii.  p.  325.  Mr.  Hallam  says :  '  The  Fathers,  with  the  exception, 
perhaps  the  single  one,  of  Augustine,  had  taught  the  corporeity  of  the  think- 
ing substance.'     {Hist  of  Lit.) 

^  Cudworth,  vol.  iii.  p.  318.  The  same  Father  based  his  doctrine  of  the 
soul  in  a  great  measure  on  apparitions.     (Ibid.  p.  330.) 

-  '  Corporalitas  animse  in  ipso  evangelio  relucebit.  Dolet  apud  inferos 
aniiria  cujusdam,  et  punitur  in  flamma  et  cruciatur  in  lingua  et  de  digito  animra 
folieioris  implorat  solatium  roris.' — Tertullian,  De  Anima,  cap.  vii. 

^  Ibid.  cap.  ix.  I  should  mention  that  this  book  was  written  after  Tertul- 
lian had  become  a  Montanist,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  tliis  had 
anything  to  say  to  his  psycliology. 


DEYELOPMEKTS    OF    EATIOXALISII.  343 

quently  seen,  and  were  universally  believed  to  have  cohabited 
with  the  daughters  of  the  antediluvians. 

Under  the  influence  of  mediaival  habits  of  thought,  every 
spiritual  conception  was  materialised  ;  and  what  at  an  earliei 
and  a  later  period  was  generally  deemed  the  language  ol 
metaphor,  was  universally  regarded  as  the  language  of  fact. 
The  realisations  of  the  people  were  all  derived  from  painting, 
sculpture,  or  ceremonies  that  appealed  to  the  senses,  and  all 
subjects  were  therefore  reduced  to  palpable  images.^  The 
angel  in  the  Last  Judgment  was  constantly  represented 
weighing  the  souls  in  a  literal  balance,  Avhile  devils  clinging 
to  the  scales  endeavoured  to  disturb  the  equilibrium.  Some- 
times the  soul  was  portrayed  as  a  sexless  child,  rising  out 
of  the  mouth  of  the  corpse.*  But  above  all,  the  doctrine  of 
purgatory  arrested  and  enchained  the  imagination.  Every 
church  was  crowded  with  pictures  representing  the  souls  of 
those  who  had  just  died  as  literal  bodies  writhing  with  hor- 
rible contortions  in  a  literal  fire.  The  two  doctrines  were 
strictly  congruous,  and  each  supported  the  other.  Men  wlio 
belieYcd  in  a  '  physical  soul,'  readily  believed  in  a  physical 
punishment.  Men  who  materialised  their  y'iqw  of  the  pun- 
ishment, materialised  their  view  of  the  sufferers. 

AVe  find,  however,  some  time  before  the  Reformation, 
e^'ident  signs  of  a  desire  on  the  part  of  a  few  writers  to  rise  to 
a  purer  conception  of  the  soul.  The  pantheistic  writings  that 
flowed  from  the  school  of  Averroes,  rcA^iving  the  old  Stoical 
notion  of  a  soul  of  nature,  directed  attention  to  the  great 
])roblem  of  the  connection  between  tlie  worlds  of  matter  and 

^  See  on  this  subject  Maury,  Ler/endes  Fiacscs,  pp.  125-1 2 Y. 

"^  Maury,  Li-gendes  Picuscs,  p.  124.  There  is  an  example  of  this  in  the 
Triumph  of  Death,  by  Orcaj^ia,  at  Pisa.  In  the  Greek  churches  the  souls  of 
the  Ijlesscd  were  sometimes  represented  as  little  children  clasped  in  the  mightj 
hand  of  God.     (Didron,  Iconographie^  p.  21G.) 


344:  NATIONALISM   IX   EUEOPE. 

of  mind.  ^  The  conception  of  an  all-pervading  spirit,  which 
'  sleeps  in  the  stone,  dreams  in  the  animal,  and  wakes  in  the 
man;'^  the  belief  that  the  hidden  vital  jDrinciple  which 
produces  the  varied  forms  of  organisation,  is  but  the  thrill  of 
the  Divine  essence  that  is  present  in  them  all — this  belief, 
which  had  occupied  so  noble  a  place  among  the  speculations 
of  antiquity,  reappeared,  and  was,  perhaps,  strengthened  by 
the  rapid  progress  of  mysticism,  which  may  be  regarded  as 
the  Christian  form  of  pantheism.  Coalescing  at  first  with 
some  lingering  traditions  of  Gnosticism,  mysticism  appeared 
in  the  thirteenth  century  in  the  sect  of  the  Bcgards,  and 
especially  in  the  teachings  of  David  de  Dianant,  Ortlieb,  and 
Amaury  de  Bene ;  and  in  the  following  century,  under  the 
guidance  of  Eckart,  Tauler,  Suso,  and  Ruysbroek,  it  acquired 
in  Germany  an  extraordinary  popularity,  to  w^hich  the  strong- 
religious  feeling  elicited  by  the  black  death,  and  the  reaction 
that  had  begun  against  the  excessive  aridity  of  scholasticism, 
both  contributed.^  The  writings  ascribed  to  Dionysius  the 
Areopagite,  w^hich  have  always  been  the  Bible  of  mysticism, 
and  w^hich  had  been  in  part  translated  by  Scotus  Erigena, 
and  also  some  of  the  works  of  Scotus  himself,  rose  to  sudden 
favour,  and  a  new  tone  w^as  given  to  almost  all  classes  of 
theological  reasoners.  As  the  philosophical  aspect  of  this 
tone  of  thought,  an  order  of  investigation  w\as  produced, 
W'hich  w^as  showm  in  curious  enquiries  about  how  life  is  first 
generated  in  matter.  The  theory  of  spontaneous  generation, 
which  Lucretius  had  made  the  basis  of  a  great  j^ortion  of  liis 
system,  and  on  w-hich  the  philosophers  of  the  eighteenth 
century  laid,  so  great  stress,  w^as  strongly  asserted,^  and  all 

'  Schclling. 

'  Sec  Schmidt,  l^tudcs  sur  le  Mysticisme  Allemand  du  XIV'  Sieclc,  in  the 
Memoir es  des  Sciences  Morales  et  Pol'diques  de  VLisliiut  de  France,  torn.  ii. 
'  The  foUoAviQg  passage  from  Yivcs  is  interesting  both  as  giving  a  concise 


DEYEL0PMEXT3    OF   RATIONALISM.  345 

the  mysteries  of  generation  treated  with  a  confidence  that 
elicits  a  smile,^  not  unmixed  with  melancholy  when  we  think 
how  completely  these  great  questions  of  the  nature  and 
origin  of  life,  Avhich  may  be  almost  said  to  form  the  basis  of 
all  real  knowledge,  have  eluded  our  investigations,  and  hov/ 
absolutely  the  fair  promise  of  the  last  century  has  in  this 
respect  been  unfulfilled.  From  enquiries  about  the  genesis 
of  tjie  soul,  it  was  natural  to  proceed  to  examine  its  nature. 
Such  enquiries  were  accordingly  earnestly  pursued,  with  the 
assistance  of  the  pagan  writers ;  and  the  conclusions  arrived 
at  on  this  point  by  difierent  schools  exercised,  as  is  always 
the  case,  a  very  wide  influence  upon  their  theological  con- 
ceptions. I  cannot  doubt,  that  when  at  last  Descartes 
maintained  that  thought  is  the  essence  of  the  soul,  and  that 
the  thinking  substance  is  therefore  so  wholly  and  generically 
different  from  the  body,  that  none  of  the  forms  or  properties 
of  matter  can  afford  the  faintest  image  of  its  nature,  he  con- 
tributed much  to  that  frame  of  mind  which  made  men 
naturally  turn  with  contempt  from  ghosts,  visible  demons, 

view  of  the  notions  prevailing  about  spontaneous  generation,  and  on  account 
of  tae  very  curious  notion  in  it  about  mice :  '  De  viventibus  alia  generationem 
habent  spontaneum,  ut  muscae,  culices,  formicas,  apes :  qua3  nee  sexum  ullum 
habent.  Alia  ex  commixtione  sexuum  prodeunt,  ut  homo,  equus,  canis,  leo. 
Sunt  quae  ambiguam  habent  procreationem,  ut  mures  ;  nam  eorura  alii  ex  sordi- 
bus  sine  concubitu,  alii  ex  concubitu  proveniunt.'  {De  Anima,  lib.  i.)  Van 
Helmont,  as  is  well  known,  gave  a  receipt  for  producing  mice.  St.  Augustine, 
after  taking  great  pains  to  solve  different  objections  to  the  goodness  of  Provi- 
dence, oddly  enough  selects  the  existence  of  mice  as  an  impenetrable  one 
which  faith  alone  can  grasp  :  '  Ego  vero  fateor  me  nescire  mures  et  ranae  quare 
crcati  sunt,  aut  muscoo,  aut  vermiculoe.'  {De  Genesi  contra  Manichceos^  c.  xvi.) 
^  Thus,  Melanchthon  deals,  in  a  tone  of  the  most  absolute  assurance,  with 
the  great  question  of  the  cause  of  the  difference  of  sex :  '  Marcs  nascuntur 
magis  in  dextra  parte  matricis,  et  a  scmine  quod  magis  a  dcxtro  testiculo 
oritur.  Foemellce  in  sinistra  matricis  parte  nascuntur.'  Melanchthon,  De  Ani- 
ma,  p.  420. 


346  EATIOXALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

and  purgatorial  fires/  It  is  true  that  the  Cartesian  cloctriuc 
was  soon  in  a  measure  eclipsed,  but  it  at  least  destroyed  for 
ever  the  old  notion  of  an  inner  body.^ 

From  the  time  of  Descartes,  the  doctrine  of  a  material  lire 
may  indeed  be  said  to  have  steadily  declined.'  The  scejDtics 
of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  treated  it  Avith 
great  contempt,  and  in  England,  at  least,  the  last  great  con- 
troversy on  the  subject  in  the  Church  seems  to  have  taken 
place  during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Swin- 
dcn,  Whiston,  Horberry,  Dodwell,  and  in  America  Jonathan 
Edwards,  discussed  it  from  different  points  of  view,^  and  at- 

^  The  sharp  line  Descartes  tried  to  draw  between  the  body  and  the  soul  ex- 
plains his  doctrine  of  animals,  which  has  often  been  grossly  misunderstood. 
Thought,  he  contended,  is  the  essence  of  the  soul,  and  all  that  is  not  thought 
(as  life  and  sensibility)  is  of  the  body.  In  denying  that  brutes  had  souls,  he 
denied  them  the  power  of  thought,  but  left  them  all  besides.  This  distinction 
in  its  full  rigidity  would  now  be  maintained  by  very  few ;  and  Stahl  gave 
psychology  an  impulse  in  quite  another  direction  by  his  doctrine  (which  seems 
to  have  been  that  of  Aristotle),  that  the  soul  includes  the  vital  principle — all 
that  separates  living  from  dead  bodies.  He  thus  founded  the  psychology  of 
animals,  and  in  a  great  measure  fused  psychology  and  medicine.  There  is  a 
clear  statement  on  this  point  in  Maine  de  Birau,  Nouveaux  Rapports  Phydques 
et  Morales.  There  is  at  present  a  remarkable  revival  of  the  doctrine  of  Stahl 
ia  France  in  the  writings  of  Tissot,  Boullier,  Charles,  and  Lemoine. 

"^  A  doctrine,  however^  something  like  that  of  the  old  Fathers,  but  applied 
to  the  bodies  of  the  blessed,  has  been  lately  advocated  in  two  very  ingenious 
American  books — Hitchcock's  Religion  of  Geology^  and  Lectures  on  the  Sea- 
sons. The  author  has  availed  himself  of  Rcichcnbach's  theories  of  'odic 
light,'  &c. 

^  Descartes  himself  gives  us  the  opinion  of  his  contemporaries  on  the  sub- 
ject :  '  Bien  que  la  commune  opinion  des  theologiens  soit  que  les  damncs  sont 
tourmentes  par  le  feu  des  cnfers,  neanmoins  leur  sentiment  n'est  pas  pour  cela 
qu'ils  sont  de9us  par  une  fausse  idee  que  Dieu  leur  a  imprimce,  d'un  feu  qui 
les  consume,  mais  plutot  qu'ils  sont  veritablement  tourmentes  par  le  feu ;  par- 
ceque  "commc  I'csprit  d'un  homme  vivant,  bien  qu'il  ne  soit  pas  corporel,  est 
neanmoins  detenu  dans  le  corps,  ainsi  Dieu  par  sa  toutc-puissancc  peut  aise« 
ment  faire  qu'il  soufFre  les  atteintes  du  feu  corporel  apres  la  mort."  '  {Re- 
ponscs  aux  Sixihnc  Objections.) 

*  This  was,  as  far  as  I  know,  the  last  of  the  great  coutrovorsios  concerning 


DEVEL0PMEXT3    OF    EATIOXALISM.  3^1:7 

tested  the  rapid  progress  of  the  scepticism.  Towards  the 
2lose  of  the  century  the  doctrine  had  passed  away,  for  though 
there  was  no  formal  recantation  or  change  of  dogmas,  it  was 
virtually  excluded  from  the  popular  teaching,  though  it  even 
now  lingers  among  the  least  educated  Dissenters,  and  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  manuals  for  the  poor. 

I  have  dwelt  at  length  upon  this  very  revolting  doctrine, 
because  it  exercised,  I  believe,  an  extremely  important  in- 
fluence on  the  modes  of  thought  and  types  of  character  of  the 
past.  I  have  endeavoured  to  show  how  its  necessary  eifect 
was  to  chill  and  deaden  the  sympathies,  to  predispose  men  to 
inflict  suflering,  and  seriously  to  retard  the  march  of  civilisa- 
tion. It  has  now  virtually  passed  away,  and  with  it  the  type 
of  character  that  it  did  so  much  to  form.  Instead  of  the  old 
stern  Inquisitor,  so  unflinching  in  his  asceticism,  so  heroic  in 
his  enterprises,  so  remorseless  in  his  persecution — instead  of 
the  men  who  multiplied  and  elaborated  the  most  hideous  tor- 
tures, w^ho  wrote  long  cold  treatises  on  their  application,  who 
stimulated  and  embittered  the  most  ferocious  wars,  and  who 
watered  every. land  with  the  blood  of  the  innocent — instead 
of  this  ecclesiastical  type  of  character,  we  meet  with  an 
almost  feminine  sensibility,  and  an  almost  morbid  indisposi- 
tion to  inflict  punishment.  The  preeminent  characteristic  of 
modern  Christianity  is  the  boundless  2:)hilanthropy  it  displays. 
Philanthropy  is  to  our  age  what  asceticism  was  to  the  middlo 


the  locality  of  hell — a  question  which  had  once  excited  great  attention.  The 
common  opinion,  which  St.  Thomas  had  sanctioned,  was  that  it  was  in  the 
centre  of  the  earth.  Whiston,  however,  who  denied  the  eternity  of  punish- 
ment, contended  that  it  was  the  tail  of  a  comet ;  while  Swinden  (whose  book 
Beems  to  have  made  a  considerable  sensation,  and  was  translated  into  French) 
strenuously  contended  that  it  was  the  sun.  According  to  Plancy  {Diet  Infer- 
nal, art.  Enfer),  some  early  theologians  not  only  held  this,  but  explained  the 
spots  in  the  sun  by  the  multitude  of  the  souls. 


348  RATIONALISM    IN     EUROPE. 

ages,  and  what  polemical  discussion  -was  to  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries.  The  emotional  part  of  humanity,  the 
humanity  of  impulse,  was  never  so  developed,  and  its  de- 
velopment, in  Protestantism  at  least,  where  the  movement 
has  been  most  strikingly  evinced,  has  always  been  guided 
and  represented  by  the  clergy.  Indeed,  this  fact  is  recog- 
nised quite  as  much  by  their  opponents  as  by  their  admirers. 
A  certain  weak  and  effeminate  sentimentality,  both  intel- 
lectual and  moral,  is  the  quality  which  every  satirist  of  the 
clergy  dwells  upon  as  the  most  prominent  feature  of  their 
character.  Whether  this  quality,  when  duly  analysed,  is  as 
despicable  as  is  sometimes  suj)posed,  may  be  questioned ;  at 
all  events,  no  one  would  think  of  ascribing  it  to  the  ecclesias- 
tics of  the  school  of  Torquemada,  of  Calvin,  or  of  Knox. 

The  changes  that  take  place  from  age  to  age  in  the  types 
of  character  in  different  j^rofessions,  though  they  are  often 
very  evident,  and  though  they  form  one  of  the  most  sugges- 
tive branches  of  history,  are  of  course  not  susceptible  of  direct 
logical  proof.  A  writer  can  only  lay  the  general  impressions 
he  has  derived  from  the  study  of  the  two  periods  before  tlie 
judgments  of  those  whose  studies  have  resembled  his  own. 
It  is  more,  therefore,  as  an  illustration  than  as  a  proof,  that  I 
may  notice  in  conclusion  the  striking  contrast  which  the 
history  of  punishments  exhibits  in  the  two  periods  of  theo- 
logical development.  We  have  seen  that  the  popular  esti- 
mate of  the  adequacy  of  the  j^enalties  that  are  affixed  to  dif- 
ferent crimes  must  in  a  great  measure  vary  with  the  popular 
realisations  of  guilt.  We  have  seen,  too,  that  the  abolition 
of  torture  Avas  a  movement  almost  entirely  due  to  the  oppo- 
nents of  tlie  Church,  and  tliat  it  was  effected  much  less  by 
any  process  of  reasoning  than  by  the  influence  of  certain 
modes   of  feeling  wliich  civilisation  j)roduced.     Soon,  how- 


DEVELOPMEXTS    OF   EATTOXALIS:?,!.  3-19 

ever,  we  find  that  the  impulse  which  was  communicated  by 
Voltaire,  Beccaria,  and  the  Revolution,  passed  on  to  the  or- 
thodox, and  it  was  only  then  it  acquired  its  full  intensity. 
The  doctrine  of  a  literal  fire  liaving  almost  ceased  to  he  a 
realised  conception,  a  growing  sense  of  the  undue  severity 
of  punishments  was  everywhere  manifested ;  and  in  most 
countries,  but  more  especially  in  England,  there  was  no  sin- 
gle subject  on  which  more  earnestness  was  shown.  Tlie  first 
step  was  taken  by  Howard.  Nowhere  perhaps  in  the  annals 
of  philanthropy  do  we  meet  a  picture  of  more  unsullied  and 
fruitful  beneficence  than  is  presented  by  the  life  of  that  great 
dissenter,  who,  having  travelled  over  more  than  40,000  miles 
in  works  of  mercy,  at  last  died  on  a  foreign  soil  a  martyr  to 
his  cause.  ISTot  only  in  England,  but  over  the  whole  of 
Europe,  his  exertions  directed  public  o]3inion  to  the  condition 
of  prisons,  and  effected  a  revolution  the  results  of  which  can 
never  be  estimated.  Soon  after  followed  the  mitigation  of 
the  penal  code.  In  England  the  severity  of  that  code  had 
long  been  unexampled ;  and  as  crimes  of  violence  were  es- 
pecially numerous,  the  number  of  executions  was  probably 
quite  unparalleled  in  Europe.  Indeed,  Fortescue,  who  was 
chief  justice  under  Henry  VI.,  notices  the  fact  with  curious 
complacency,  as  a  plain  proof  of  the  superiority  of  his  coun- 
trymen. 'More  men,'  lie  tells  us,  'are  hanged  in  Englonde 
in  one  year  than  in  Fraunce  in  seven,  because  the  English 
have  better  hartes.  The  Scotchmenne,  likewise,  never  dare 
rob,  but  only  commit  larcenies.'  ^  In  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIH.,  when  an  attempt  was  made  to  convert  tlie  greater 
pirt  of  England  into  pasture  land,''  and  when  the  suppression 

*  Barrington,  On  the  Statutes  (London,  1769),  p.  461. 

^  Sir  Thomas  More,  in  his  Utopia  (book  i,),  gives  a  frightful  clescrii)tion  of 
the  misery  and  the  crimes  resulting  from  the  ejectments  necessitated  by  thia 
change.     Ue  speaks  of  twenty  men  hung  on  one  gibbet. 


350  EATIOXALISM   IN    EUEOPE. 

of  the  monasteries  had  destroyed  the  main  source  of  charity 
and  had  cast  multitudes  helplessly  upon  the  world,  Holinshed 
estimates  the  executions  at  the  amazing  number  of  72,000,  or 
2,000  a  year/  The  j^oor  law  of  Elizabeth  to  a  certain  extent 
mitigated  the  evil,  yet  at  the  end  of  her  reign  the  annual  ex- 
ecutions Avere  still  about  400.^  In  the  middle  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  however,  though  the  population  had  greatly 
increased,  they  had  fallen  to  less  than  one  hundred.*  A  little 
before  this  time  Bishop  Berkeley,  following  in  the  steps  that 
had  been  traced  by  More  in  his  '  Utopia,'  and  by  Cromwell 
in  one  of  his  speeches,  raised  his  voice  in  favour  of  substitut- 
ing other  punishments  for  death.*  But  all  through  the  reign 
of  George  III.  the  code  was  aggravated,  and  its  severity  was 
carried  to  such  a  point,  that  when  Romilly  began  his  career, 
the  number  of  capital  offences  was  no  less  than  230.^  It  was 
only  at  the  close  of  the  last  and  in  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  that  this  state  of  things  was  changed.  The 
reform  in  England,  as  over  the  rest  of  Euroj^e,  may  be  ulti- 
mately traced  to  that  Voltairian  school  of  which  Beccaria 
was  the  representative,  for  the  impulse  created  by  the 
treatise  '  On  Crimes  and  Punishments '  was  universal,  and 
it  was  the  first  great  effort  to  infuse  a  spirit  of  philanthropy 
into  the  penal  code,  making  it  a  main  object  of  legislation  to 
inflict  the  smallest  possible  amount  of  suffering.  Beccaria  is 
especially  identified  with  that  great  cause  of  the  abolition  of 
capital  punishment,  which  is  slowly  but  steadily  advancing 

*  Barrington,  pp.  461,  462.  -  Ibid. 

^  Barrington  says  this  was  the  case  when  he  wrote,  which  was  in  iTCe. 

*  He  asks  '  whether  we  may  not,  as  well  as  other  nations,  contrive  employ- 
ment for  our  crimiuiils ;  and  whether  servitude,  chains,  and  hard  labour  for  a 
term  of  years,  would  not  be  a  more  discouraging  as  well  as  a  more  adequate 
punishment  for  felons  than  even  death  itself.'     {Querist^  Xo.  54.) 

*  See  Komilly's  Life  for  many  statistics  on  the  subject. 


DEVELOPMENTS    OF   EATIOX^VLISM.  351 

tOAvarcls  its  inevitable  triumph.  In  England  the  philosophi- 
cal element  of  the  movement  was  nobly  represented  by  Ben- 
thara,  who  in  genius  was  certainly  superior  to  Beccaria,  and 
whose  influence,  thougli  perhaps  not  so  great,  was  also  Eu- 
ropean. But  while  conceding  the  fullest  merit  to  these  great 
thinkers,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  enthusiasm  and' 
the  support  that  enabled  Romilly,  Mackintosh,  Wilberforce, 
and  Brougham  to  carry  their  long  scries  of  reforms  through 
Parliament,  was  in  a  very  great  degree  owing  to  the  untiring 
exertions  of  the  Evangelicals,  Avho,  with  a  benevolence  that 
no  disajDpointment  could  damp,  and  with  an  indulgence 
towards  crime  that  sometimes  amounted  even  to  a  fault, 
cast  their  whole  weight  into  the  cause  of  philanthropy.  The 
contrast  between  tlie  position  of  these  r^igionists  in  the  de- 
struction of  the  worst  features  of  the  ancient  codes,  and  the 
precisely  opposite  position  of  the  mediaival  clergy,  is  very 
remarkable.  Sectarians  will  only  see  in  it  the  difference  be- 
tween rival  ciiurches,  but  the  candid  historian  will,  I  think, 
be  able  to  detect  the  changed  types  of  character  that  civilisa- 
tion has  produced  ;  while  in  the  difference  that  does  undoubt- 
edly in  tliis  respect  exist  between  Protestantism  and  Cathol- 
icism, he  will  find  one  of  the  results  of  the  very  different 
degrees  of  intensity  w^ith  which  those  religions  direct  the 
mind  to  the  debasing  and  indurating  conceptions  I  have  re- 
viewed. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  tendency  of  religious  thought 
m  the  present  day  '  is  all  in  one  direction — towards  the  iden- 
tification of  the  Bible  and  conscience.'  It  is  a  movement 
that  may  be  deplored,  but  can  scarcely  be  overlooked  or 
denied.  Generation  after  generation  the  power  of  the  moral 
faculty  becomes  more  absolute,  the  doctrines  that  oppose  it 
wane  and  vanish,  and  the  various  elements  of  theology  are 


352  EATIOXALISM   IX    EUROPE. 

absorbed  and  recast  by  its  influence.  The  indifference  cf 
most  men  to  dogmatic  theology  is  now  so  marked,  and 
the  fear  of  tampering  with  formularies  that  are  no  longer 
based  on  general  conviction  is  with  some  men  so  intense, 
that  general  revisions  of  creeds  have  become  extremely  rare ; 
but  the  change  of  belief  is  not  the  less  profound.  The  old 
words  are  indeed  retained,  but  they  no  longer  present  the 
old  images  to  the  mind,  or  exercise  the  old  influence  upon  the 
life.  The  modes  of  thought,  and  the  types  of  character 
which  those  modes  produce,  are  essentially  and  universally 
transformed.  The  whole  intellectual  atmosphere,  the  whole 
tenor  of  life,  the  prevailing  enthusiasms,  the  conceptions  of 
the  imagination,  are  all  changed.  The  intellect  of  man 
moves  onward  imder  the  influence  of  regular  laws  in  a  given 
direction;  and  the  opinions  that  in  any  age  are  realised  and 
operative,  are  those  which  harmonise  with  its  intellectual 
condition.  I  have  endeavoured  in  the  present  chapter  to 
exhibit  the  nature  of  some  of  these  laws,  the  direction  in 
which  some  of  these  successive  modifications  are  tending. 
If  the  prospect  of  constant  change  such  an  enquiry  exhibits 
should  a2-)pear  to  some  minds  to  remove  all  the  landmarks  of 
the  past,  there  is  one  consideration  that  may  serve  in  a  meas- 
ure to  reassure  them.  That  Christianity  was  designed  to 
produce  benevolence,  affection,  and  sympathy,  being  a  fact 
of  universal  admission,  is  indefinitely  more  certain  than  that 
any  particular  dogma  is  essential  to  it ;  and  in  the  increase 
of  these  moral  qualities  we  have  therefore  the  strongest  evi- 
dence of  the  triumph  of  the  conceptions  of  its  Founder. 


CHAPTEE  lY. 
ON    PEKSECUTION. 


Part  I. 

THE  ANTECEDENTS  OF  PERSECUTION. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  the  Foiuider  of  Christianity 
gummed  up  human  duties  in  the  two  precepts  of  love  to  God 
and  love  to  man,  and  illustrated  the  second  precept  hy  a 
parable  representing  the  sentiment  of  a  common  humanity 
destroying  all  the  animosities  of  sectarianism,  the  history  of 
persecution  in  the  Christian  Church  appears  as  startling  as  it 
is  painful.  In  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  minds  of 
men  were  for  the  first  time  very  sensible  of  the  contrast,  it 
was  commonly  explained  by  iuiputing  interested  motives  to 
tlie  clergy,  and  in  all  the  writings  of  Voltaire  and  his  school 
hypocrisy  was  represented  as  the  nsual  concomitant  of  ^cv- 
secution.  This  notion  may  now  be  said  to  have  quite  passed 
away.  While  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  some  jDcrsecutions, 
and  even  some  that  were  very  atrocious,  have  S23rung  from 
purely  selfish  motives,  it  is  almost  universally  admitted  that 
these  are  far  from  furnishing  any  adequate  explanation  for 
the  facts.  The  burnings,  the  tortures,  the  imprisonments, 
the  confiscations,  tlie  disabilities,  tlie  long  wars  and  still 
longer  animosities   that  for  so  many  centuries  marked  the 

TOL.  I.— 23 


354  EATIONALISM   IX    EUEOPE. 

conflicts  of  great  theological  bodies,  are  chiefly  cine  to  men 
wliose  lives  were  spent  in  absolute  clcA'otion  to  what  they 
believed  to  be  true,  and  whose  characters  have  passed  un- 
scathed through  the  most  hostile  and  searching  criticism. 
In  their  worst  acts  the  persecutors  were  but  the  exponents 
and  representatives  of  the  wishes  of  a  large  section  of  the 
community,  and  that  section  was  commonly  the  most  earnest 
and  the  most  unselfish.  It  has  been  observed  too,  since  the 
subject  has  been  investigated  with  a  passionless  judgment, 
that  persecution  invariably  accompanied  the  realisation  of  a 
particular  class  of  doctrines,  fluctuated  with  their  fluctua- 
tions, and  may  therefore  be  faii-ly  presumed  to  represent 
their  action  upon  life. 

In  the  last  chapter  I  have,  I  trust,  done  something  to- 
wards the  solution  of  the  difiiculty.  I  have  shown  that  the 
normal  effect  of  a  certain  class  of  realisations  upon  the.char- 
acter  would  be  to  produce  an  absolute  indifference  to  the 
sufferings  of  those  who  Avere  external  to  the  Church,  and 
consequently  to  remove  that  reluctance  to  inflict  pain  which 
is  one  of  the  chief  preservatives  of  society.  I  have  now  to 
trace  the  order  of  ideas  which  persuaded  men  that  it  was 
their  duty  to  persecute,  and  to  show  the  process  by  which 
those  ideas  passed  away.  The  task  is  a  painful  one,  for  the 
doctrines  I  must  refer  to  are  those  which  are  most  repugnant 
to  our  moral  sense,  and  in  an  age  in  which  they  are  not  re- 
alised or  believed  the  bare  statement  of  them  is  sufticieut  to 
shock  the  feelings  of  many :  at  the  same  time  a  clear  view 
of  their  nature  and  influence  is  absolutely  essential  to  an  un- 
derstanding of  the  past. 

There  are  two  moral  sentiments  which  seem  universally 
diffused  through  the  human  race,  and  which  may  be  regarded 
as  the  nuclei  around  which  all  religious  systems  are  formed 


ON   PERSECUTION.  355 

They  are  the  sense  of  virtue,  leading  men  to  attach  the  idea 
of  merit  to  certain  actions  which  they  may  perform ;  and  the 
sense  of  sin,  teaching  men  that  their  relation  to  the  Deity  is 
not  that  of  claimants  hut  of  suppliants.  Although  in  some 
degree  antagonistic,  there  probably  never  was  a  religious 
mind  in  which  they  did  not  coexist,  and  the}'  may  be  traced 
as  prominent  elements  in  the  moral  development  of  every 
age  and  creed,  but  at  the  same  time  their  relative  importance 
is  far  from  being  the  same.  Tliere  are  certain  ages  in  which 
the  sense  of  virtue  has  been  the  maiiispring  of  religion  ; 
there  are  other  ages  in  which  this  position  is  occupied  by  the 
sense  of  sin.  This  may  be  partly  owing  to  the  differences  in 
the  original  constitutions  of  different  races,  or  to  those  influ- 
ences of  surrounding  nature  which  act  so  early  upon  the 
mind  that  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  distinguish  them  from 
natural  tendencies ;  but  it  is  certainly  in  a  great  measure  due 
to  the  political  and  intellectual  circumstances  that  are  dom- 
inant. When  prosperity  and  victory  and  dominion  have 
long  continued  to  elate,  and  when  the  virtues  that  contribute 
most  to  political  greatness,  such  as  fortitude  and  self  reli- 
ance, are  cultivated,  the  sense  of  human  dignity  will  become 
the  chief  moral  principle,  and  every  system  that  opposes  it 
will  be  distasteful.  But  when,  on  the  other  hand,  a  religious 
system  emanates  from  a  suffering  people,  or  from  a  people 
that  is  eminently  endowed  with  religious  sentiment,  its  cliar- 
acter  will  be  entirely  different.  It  will  reflect  something  of 
the  circumstances  that  gave  it  birth ;  it  will  be  full  of  pathos, 
of  humility,  of  emotion ;  it  will  lead  men  to  aspire  to  a  lofty 
ideal,  to  interrogate  their  conscience  with  nervous  anxiety, 
to  study  with  scrupulous  care  the  motives  that  actuate  them, 
to  distrust  their  own  powers,  and  to  tlirow  themselves  upon 
external  help. 


356  EATIOXALISM   m   EUEOPE. 

Now,  of  all  systems  the  world  has  ever  seen,  the  philos- 
ophies of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome  appealed  most  strongly 
to  the  sense  of  virtue,  and  Christianity  to  the  sense  of  sin. 
The  ideal  of  the  first  was  the  majesty  of  self-relying  human- 
ity ;  the  ideal  of  the  other  was  the  absorption  of  the  man- 
hood into  God.  It  is  impossible  to  look  upon  the  awful 
beauty  of  a  Greek  statue,  or  -to  read  a  page  of  Plutarch, 
Avithout  j^erceiving  how  completely  the  idea  of  excellence 
was  blended  with  that  of  pride.  It  is  equally  impossible  to 
examine  the  life  of  a  Christian  saint,  or  the  ]3ainting  of  an 
early  Christian  artist,  without  perceiving  that  the  dominant 
conception  was  self-abnegation  and  self-distrust.  In  the 
earliest  and  purest  days  of  the  Church  this  was  chiefly  mani- 
fested in  the  devotional  frame  of  mind  which  w^as  habitual, 
and  in  the  higher  and  more  delicate  moral  perception  that 
accompanied  it.  Christianity  was  then  strictly  a  religion  ; 
that  is  to  say,  it  consisted  of  modes  of  emotion  and  not  of 
intellectual  propositions.  It  was  not  till  about  the  third  cen- 
tury that  the  moral  sentiments  which  at  first  constituted  it 
were  congealed  into  an  elaborate  theology,  and  were  in  con- 
sequence necessarily  perverted.  I  say  necessarily  perverted, 
because  a  dogma  cannot  be  an  adequate  or  faithful  represent- 
ative of  a  mode  of  feeling./  Moral  sentiments  do  not  possess 
the  logical  precision  and  rigidity  which  belong  to  the  articles 
of  a  creed,  and  to  convert  the  former  into  the  latter  invari- 
ably leads  to  the  most  fatal  consequences.  Thus,  while  the 
sense  of  virtue  and  the  sense  of  sin  have  always  coexisted, 
though  in  different  degrees,  in  every  religious  mind,  when 
expressed  in  a  dogmatic  form,  under  the  names  of  Justifica- 
tion by  Faith  and  Justification  by  Works,  they  became 
directly  opposed  to  one  another ;  and  while  each  doctrine 
grew  in  the  first  instance  out  of  the  moral  faculty,  each  was 


ON  rERSECUTION.  357 

at  last  developed  to  consequences  from  wliicli  that  faculty 
indignantly  revolts.  As  the  result  of  one  doctrine,  men  con 
structed  a  theory  in  which  the  whole  scheme  of  religion  was 
turned  into  a  system  of  elaborate  barter;  while  that  attitude 
of  self-distrust  and  humility  which  was  produced  by  the 
sensitiveness  of  an  awakened  conscience  was  soon  trans- 
formed into  a  doctrine  according  to  which  all  the  virtues  and 
all  the  piety  of  the  heathen  contained  nothing  that  was 
pleasing  to  the  Almighty,  or  that  could  ward  off  the  sen- 
tence of  eternal  damnation. 

In  considering,  however,  the  attitude  which  mankind  oc- 
cupied towards  the  Almighty  in  the  early  theology  of  the 
Church,  we  have  another  important  element  to  examine :  I 
mean  the  conception  of  hereditary  guilt.  To  a  civilised 
man,  who  regards  the  question  abstractedly,  no  proposition 
can  appear  more  self-evident  than  that  a  man  can  only  be 
guilty  of  acts  in  the  performance  of  which  he  has  himself 
had  some  share.  The  misfortune  of  one  man  may  fall  upon 
another,  but  guilt  appears  to  be  entirely  personal.  Yet,  on 
the  other  hand,  there  is  nothing  more  certain  than  that  the 
conceptions  both  of  hereditary  guilt  and  of  hereditary  merit 
pervade  the  belief  and  the  institutions  of  all  nations,  and 
laave  under  the  most  varied  circumstances  clung  to  the  mind 
with  a  tenacity  which  is  even  now  but  beginning  to  relax. 
We  find  them  in  every  system  of  early  punishment  whicli 
involved  children  in  the  destruction  of  a  guilty  parent,  in 
every  account  of  curses  transmitted  through  particular  fami- 
lies or  particular  nations,  in  every  hereditary  aristocracy,  and 
in  every  legend  of  an  early  fall.  All  these  rest  upon  the 
idea  that  there  is  something  in  tlie  merit  or  demerit  of  one 
man  that  may  be  reflected  upon  his  successors  altogether  irre- 
spectively of  their  own  acts.     It  would  pcrliaps  be  rash  to 


358  llATIOXxVLISM   IX   EUROPE. 

draw  with  mucli  confidence  any  law  concerning  the  relations 
of  this  idea  to  different  conditions  of  society  from  the  history 
of  Christendom,  hut,  as  far  as  we  may  judge,  it  seems  to  he 
strongest  in  ages  when  civilisation  is  very  low,  and  on  the 
whole  to  decline,  hut  not  hy  any  means  steadily  and  continu- 
ously, with  the  intellectual  advance.  There  seems  to  he  a 
period  in  the  history  of  every  nation  when  punishments  in- 
volving the  innocent  child  with  the  guilty  parent  are  acqui- 
esced in  as  perfectly  natural,  and  another  period  when  they 
are  repudiated  as  manifestly  unjust.  TTe  find,  however, 
that  in  a  portion  of  the  middle  ages  when  the  night  of  har- 
harism  was  in  part  dispelled,  a  vast  aristocratical  system  was 
organised  which  has  prohaTbly  contrihuted  more  than  any 
other  single  cause  to  consolidate  the  doctrine  of  hereditary 
merit.  For  the  essence  of  an  aristocracy  is  to  transfer  the 
source  of  honour  from  the  living  to  the  dead,  to  make  the 
merits  of  living  men  depend  not  so  much  uj^on  tlieir  own 
character  and  actions  as  upon  the  actions  and  position  of 
their  ancestors  ;  and  as  a  great  aristocracy  is  never  insulated, 
as  its  ramifications  penetrate  into  many  spheres,  and  its  so- 
cial influence  modifies  all  the  relations  of  society,  the  minds 
of  men  hecome  insensihly  hahituated  to  a  standard  of  judg- 
ment from  which  they  would  otherwise  ha^e  recoiled.  If  in 
the  sphere  of  religion  the  rationalistic  doctrine  of  personal 
merit  and  demerit  should  ever  completely  supersede  the  theo- 
logical doctrine  of  hereditary  merit  or  demerit,  the  change 
Avill,  I  helieve,  he  mainly  effected  hy  the  ti-iumj^h  of  demo- 
cratic principles  in  the  sphere  of  politics. 

The  origin  of  this  widely  diffused  hahit  of  judging  men 
hy  the  deeds  of  their  ancestors  is  one  of  the  most  ohscure 
and  contested  points  in  philosophy.  Some  have  seen  in  it  a 
dim  and  distorted  tradition  of  the  Fall ;  others  have  attrih- 


ox   PEKSECUTIOX.  359 

uted  it  to  that  confusion  of  misfortune  with  guilt  which  is  so 
prominent  in  ancient  beliefs.  Partly  in  consequence  .of  the 
universal  conviction  that  guilt  deserves  punishment,  and 
partly  from  the  notion  that  the  events  which  befall  mankind 
are  the  results  not  of  general  laws  but  of  isolated  acts  di- 
rected to  special  purposes,  men  imagined  that  whenever  they 
saw  suffering  they  might  infer  guilt.  They  saw  that  the  ef- 
fects of  an  mirighteous  war  will  continue  long  after  those 
who  provoked  it  have  passed  away ;  that  the  virtue  or  vice, 
the  wisdom  or  folly,  of  the  parent  will  often  determine  the 
fortunes  of  the  children  ;  and  that  each  generation  has  proba- 
bly more  power  over  the  destiny  of  that  which  succeeds  it 
than  over  its  own.  They  saw  that  there  was  such  a  thing  as 
transmitted  suffering,  and  they  therefore  concluded  that 
there  must  be  such  a  thing  as  transmitted  guilt.  Besides 
this,  patriotism  and  Church  feeling,  and  every  influence  that 
combines  men  in  a  corporate  existence,  makes  them  live  to  a 
certain  degree  in  the  past,  and  identify  themselves  with  the 
actions  of  the  dead.  The  patriot  feels  a  pride  or  shame  in 
the  deeds  of  his  forefathers  very  similar  to  that  which 
springs  from  his  own.  Connected  with  this,  it  has  been  ob- 
served that  men  have  a  constant  tendency,  in  speaking  of 
the  human  race,  to  forget  that  they  are  employing  the  lan- 
guage of  metaphor,  and  to  attribute  to  it  a  real  objective 
existence  distinct  from  the  existence  of  living  men.  It  may 
be  added  too  that  that  retrospective  imagination  which  is  so 
strong  in  some  nations,  and  which  is  more  or  less  exhibited 
m  all,  leads  men  to  invest  the  past  with  all  the  fascination 
of  poetry,  to  represent  it  as  a  golden  age  incomparably  su- 
perior to  their  own,  and  to  imagine  that  some  great  catas- 
trophe must  have  occurred  to  obscure  it. 

These  considerations,  and  such  as  these,  have  often  been 


360  EATIOXALISM   IN    ErEOPE. 

urged  by  those  who  have  written  on  the  genesis  of  the  notion 
of  hereditary  guilt.  Fortunately,  however,  their  examination 
is  unnecessary  for  my  jiresent  purpose,  which  is  simply  to 
ascertain  the  expression  of  this  general  conception  in  dog- 
matic teaching,  and  to  trace  its  influence  upon  practice.  The 
expression  is  both  manifest  and  emphatic.  According  to  the 
unanimous  belief  of  the  early  Church,  all  who  were  external 
to  Christianity  Vv'cre  doomed  to  eternal  damnation,  not  only 
on  account  of  their  own  transgression,  but  also  on  account 
of  the  transmitted  guilt  of  Adam ;  and  therefore  even  the  new- 
born infant  was  subject  to  the  condemnation  until  baptism 
had  united  it  to  the  Church. 

The  opinion  which  was  so  graphically  expressed  by  the 
theologian  who  said  'he  doubted  not  there  were  infants  not 
a  span  long  crawling  about  the  floor  of  hell,'  is  not  one  of 
those  on  which-'-it  is  pleasing  to  dilate.  It  is  one,  however, 
which  was  held  with  great  confidence  in  the  early  Church, 
and  if  in  times  of  tranquillity  it  became  in  a  measure  un- 
realised, whenever  any  heretic  ventured  to  impugn  it,  it  was 
most  unequivocally  enforced.  At  a  period  which  is  so  early 
that  it  is  impossible  to  define  it,  infant  baptism  was  intro- 
duced into  the  Church;  it  was  adopted  by  all  the  heretics,  as 
well  as  by  the  orthodox ;  it  was  universally  said  to  be  for 
'  the  remission  of  sins ; '  and  the  whole  body  of  the  Fathers, 
without  exception  or  hesitation,  pronounced  that  all  infants 
who  died  unbaptized  were  excluded  from  heaven.  In  the 
case  of  unbaptized  adults  a  few  exceptions  were  admitted,^ 

*  Martyrdom,  or,  as  it  was  termed,  the  baptism  of  blood,  being  the  chief. 
Some,  however,  relying  on  the  case  of  the  penitent  thief,  admitted  a  '  baptism 
of  perfect  love,'  when  a  baptism  by  water  could  not  be  obtained.  This  con- 
sisted, of  course,  of  extraordinary  exercises  of  faith.  Catechumens  also,  who 
died  during  the  preparation  for  baptism,  were  thought  by  some  to  be  saved 
See  Lamet  et  Fromageau,  Diet,  dcs  Cas  de  Co7iscience,  torn.  i.  p.  208. 


ON   PERSECUTION.  3G1 

but  the  sentence  on  infants  was  inexorable.  The  learned 
English  historian  of  Infant  Baptism  states  that,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  contemporary  of  St.  Angustine,  named  Yincen- 
tius,  who  speedily  recanted  his  opinion  as  lieretical,  he  has 
been  unable  to  discover  a  single  instance  of  an  orthodox 
member  of  the  Church  expressing  the  opposite  opinion  before 
Hincmar,  who  Avas  Archbishop  of  Rheims  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury.^ In  the  time  of  this  prelate,  a  bishop  who  had  quar- 
relled with  his  clergy  and  people  ventured  to  prohibit  baptism 
in  his  diocese  ;  and.  Hincmar,  while  severely  condemning  the 
act,  expressed  a  hope  that  it  would  not  be  visited  on  the 
infants  who  died  when  the  interdict  was  in  force.  With  this 
exception  the  unanimity  seems  to  have  been  unbroken.  Some 
of  the  Greek  Fathers,  indeed,  imagined  that  there  was  a  special 
place  assigned  to  infants,  where  there  was  neither  suifering 
nor  enjoyment,  while  the  Latins  inferred  from  the  hereditary 
guilt  that  they  must  descend  into  a  place  of  torment ;  but 
both  agreed  that  they  could  not  be  saved.  The  doctrine  was 
so  firmly  rooted  in  the  Church,  that  even  Pelagius,  who  was 
one  of  the  most  rationalistic  intellects  of  his  age,  and.  who 
entirely  denied  the  reality  of  hereditary  guilt,  retained  in- 
fant baptism,  acknowledged  that  it  was  for  the  remission  of 
sins,  and  did  not  venture  to  deny  its  necessity.  It  was  on 
this  point  that  he  was  most  severely  pressed  by  his  oppo- 
nents, and.  St.  Augustine  says  that  he  was  driven  to  the 
somewhat  desperate  resource  of  maintaining  that  baptism 
was  necessary  to  wash  away  the  guilt  of  the  pettishness  of 
the  child!'     Once,  when  severely  pressed  as  to  the  conse- 

^  Wall's  HiRforii  of  Infant  Baptism,  vol.  ii,  p.  211.  St.  Thomas  Aquinas 
afterwards  suggested  the  possibility  of  the  infant  being  saved  who  died  within 
tlie  womb  :  *  God  may  have  ways  of  saving  it  for  aught  we  know.' 

-  Wall,  vol.  i.  pp.  282,  283.     It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  St.  Augustine. 


362  RATIONALISM   IN    EUEOPE. 

quences  of  tlie  doctrine,  St.  Augustine  was  compelled  to 
acknowledge  that  lie  was  not  prepared  to  assert  dogmati- 
cally that  it  would  have  been  better  for  these  children  not  to 
have  been  born ;  but  at  the  same  time  he  denied  emphatically 
that  a  separate  place  was  assigned  them,  and  in  one  of  his 
sermons  against  the  Pelagians  he  distinctly  declared  that 
they  descended  into  '  everlasting  fire.'  ^  Origen  and  many  of 
the  Egyptians  explained  the  doctrine  by  the  theory  of  pre- 
existence.^  Augustine  associated  it  with  that  of  imputed 
righteousness,  maintaining  that  guilt  and  virtue  might  be 
alike  imputed ; '  and  this  view  seems  to  have  been  generally 
adopted.  Among  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  there  are  few 
which  long  possessed  a  greater  authority  than  a  short  treatise 
'  De  Fide,'  which  is  one  of  the  clearest  and  most  forcible  ex- 
tant epitomes  of  the  Patristic  faith,  and  which  till  the  time 
of  Erasmus  was  generally  ascribed  to  St.  Augustine,  though 
It  is  now  known  to  have  been  written,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  sixth  century,  by  St.  Fulgentius.*  In  this  treatise  we 
find  the  following  very  distinct  statement  of  the  doctrine : — 
'Be  assured,'  writes  the  saint,  'and  doubt  not  that  not  only 
men  who  have  obtained  the  use  of  their  reason,  but  also  little 
children  who  have  begun  to  live  in  their  mothers'  womb  and 
have  there  died,  or  who,  having  been  just  born,  have  passed 
away  from  the  world  without  the  sacrament  of  holy  baptism, 
administered  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost,  must  be  punished  by  the  eternal  torture  of  undying 
fire;  for  although  they  have  committed  no  sin  by  their  own 

ill  answering  this  argument,  distinctly  declared  that  the  crying  of  a  baby  is  not 
sinful,  and  therefore  does  not  deserve  eternal  damnation. 

'  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  pp.  192-206,— a  full  view  of  St.  Augustine's  sentiments  ou 
*he  subject. 

'  Ilieronym.,  Epkt.  lib.  ii.  ep.  18.  ^  EpisK  28. 

*  He  was  born  about  a.d.  467.     {Biocj.  Unlv.'\ 


ON   PERSECUTION.  363 

will,  tliey  have  nevertheless  drawn  with  them  the  condemna- 
tion of  original  sin,  by  their  carnal  conception  and  nativity.'^ 
It  will  be  remembered  that  these  saints,  while  maintaining 
that  infants  whose  existence  was  but  for  a  moment  descended 
into  eternal  fire  on  account  of  an  aj^ple  that  was  eaten  four 
thousand  years  before  they  were  born,  maintained  also  that 
the  creation  and  the  death  of  those  infants  w^ere  the  direct, 
personal,  and  uncontrolled  acts  of  the  Deity. 

All  through  the  middle  ages  we  trace  the  influence  of 
this  doctrine  in  the  innumerable  superstitious  rites  which  Avere 
devised  as  substitutes  for  regular  baptism.  ^N'othing  indeed 
can  be  more  curious,  nothing  can  be  more  deeply  pathetic, 
than  the  record  of  the  many  w^ays  by  which  the  terror- 
stricken  mothers  attempted  to  evade  the  awful  sentence  of 
their  Church.  Sometimes  the  baptismal  water  w^as  sprinkled 
upon  the  v»^omb ;  sometim^es  the  stillborn  child  w^as  baptised, 
in  hopes  that  the  Almighty  would  antedate  the  ceremony ; 

^  '  Firmissime  tene,  et  nullatenus  dubites,  non  solum  homines  jam  ratioue 
utentes,  verum  ctiam  parvulos,  qui,  sive  in  uteris  matrum  rivere  incipiunt  et 
ibi  moriuntur,  sive  jam  de  matribus  nati  sine  sad'amento  sancti  baptismatis 
quod  datur  in  nomine  Patris  et  Filii  et  Spiritus  Sancti  de  hoc  sscculo  transeuut, 
ignis  jBterni  sempiterno  supplicio  puniendos;  quia  etsi  peccatum  proprias 
aciionis  nullum  habuerunt,  originalis  tamen  peccati  damnationem  carnali  con- 
ceptionc  ct  nativitate  traxerunt.' — Dc  Fldc^  §  70.  So  also  St.  Isidore :  '  Pro 
soli  originali  reatu  luunt  in  inferno  nuper  nati  infantuli  pocuas,  si  rcnovati  per 
lavacrum  non  fuerint.'  (De  Scntent.  lib.  i.  c.  22.)  St.  Avitus,  bemg  of 
poetical  turn  of  mind,  put  the  doctrine  into  verse : — 

'  Omnibus  id  vero  gravius,  si  fonte  lavacri 
Divini  expertem  tenerum  mors  invida  natum 
Proecipitat,  duril  generatum  sorte,  gehennaj, 
Qui  mox  ut  matris  cessarit  filius  esse 
Perditionis  erit :  tristes  tunc  edita  nolunt 
QujB  flaramis  tantum  genuerunt  pignora  matres.' 

Ad  Fuscinam  Sororem. 
For  several  other  testimonies  of  the  later  Fathers  to  the  same  effect,  see  Natalia 
Alexander,  Historia  Ecdcsiastica  (Paris,  1699),  torn.  v.  pp.  130,  131. 


364:  KATIOXALISM   IN    EUROPE. 

sometimes  the  mother  invoked  the  Holy  Spirit  to  purify  by 
His  immediate  power  the  infant  that  was  to  be  born ;  some- 
times she  received  the  Host  or  obtained  absolution,  and  ap- 
plied them  to  the  benefit  of  her  child.  These  and  many 
similar  practices  ^  continued  all  through  the  middle  ages  in 
spite  of  every  effort  to  extirpate  them,  and  the  severest  cen- 
sures Avere  unable  to  persuade  the  people  that  they  were  en- 
tirely ineffectual.  For  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  had  wrung 
the  mother's  heart  with  an  agony  that  was  too  poignant  even 
for  that  submissive  age  to  bear.  Weak  and  superstitious 
women,  who  never  dreamed  of  rebelling  against  the  teaching 
of  their  clergy,  could  not  acquiesce  in  the  perdition  of  their 
offspring,  and  they  vainly  attempted  to  escape  from  the  di- 
lemma by  multiplying  superstitious  practices,  or  by  attribut- 

^  For  a  very  full  account  of  these  curious  superstitions,  see  the  chapter  on 
'Baptism'  in  Thiers'  Superstitions^  and  also  a  striking  memoir  in  the  first 
volume  of  Lc  Moyen  Age,  by  Lacrois.  We  can  now  hardly  reahse  a  condi- 
tion of  thought  in  which  the  mind  was  concentrated  so  strongly  upon  the 
unborn  foetus  ;  but  we  should  remember  that,  besides  the  doctrine  of  baptism, 
there  were  two  subjects  much  discussed  in  the  early  Church  which  tended  to 
produce  an  order  of  realisations  to  which  we  are  not  accustomed.  Some  of 
the  early  writers,  and  especially  the  Nestorians,  had  agitated  questions  con- 
cerning the  time  when  the  divinity  of  Christ  was  united  to  the  foetus  in  the 
womb,  that  had  filled  the  Church  with  curious  physiological  speculations.  Be- 
tides this,  one  of  the  earliest  struggles  of  the  Church  was  for  the  suppression 
of  the  custom  of  destroying  the  offspring  in  the  womb,  which  was  extremely 
common  among  the  pagans,  and  which  they  scarcely  regarded  a  crime.  Ter- 
tuliian  {Apol.  c.  9)  and  the  author  of  the  Epistle  ascribed  to  St,  Barnabas 
appear  to  have  been  among  the  first  to  denounce  this  pagan  practice.  Another 
illustration  of  the  estimate  in  which  baptism  was  held  is  furnished  by  the 
notion  that  bodily  distempers  followed  irregular  baptism.  I  have  already  re- 
ferred to  the  belief  that  somnambulists  had  been  baptised  by  a  drunken 
priest ;  but  perhaps  the  most  curious  example  was  in  a  great  epidemic  attack 
of  St.  Yitus's  dance,  which  appeared  in  the  Netherlands  in  1315.  The  com- 
mon people  then  believed  that  the  disease  resulted  from  unchaste  priests  hav- 
ing baptised  the  children,  and  their  fury  was  so  great  that  it  was  with  diffi- 
culty that  the  lives  of  the  ecclesiastics  were  saved.  (Heckcr,  Epidemics  of 
the  Middle  Ajcs,  pp.  153,  154.) 


ON    PEKSECUTION.  365 

ing  to  them  a  more  than  orthodox  efficacy.  But  the  yigilance 
of  the  theologians  was  untiring.  All  the  methods  by  which 
these  unhappy  mothers  endeavoured  to  persuade  themselves 
that  their  children  might  have  been  saved  are  preserved  in 
the  decrees  of  the  Councils  that  anathematised  them. 

At  last  the  Reformation  came.  In  estimating  the  charac- 
ter of  tliat  great  movement,  we  must  carefully  distinguish  its 
immediate  objects  from  its  ultimate  effects.  The  impulse  of 
Avhich  it  was  in  part  the  cause,  and  in  part  the  consequence, 
at  last  issued  in  a  diffusion  of  a  rationalistic  spirit  which  no 
Church,  however  retrograde  or  dogmatic,  has  been  able  to 
exclude.  The  essence  of  that  sj^irit  is  to  interpret  the  articles 
of  special  creeds  by  the  principles  of  universal  religion — by 
the  wants,  the  aspirations,  and  the  moral  sentiments  which 
seem  inherent  in  human  nature.  It  leads  men,  in  other 
vrords,  to  judge  what  is  true  and  what  is  good,  not  by  the 
teachings  of  tradition,  but  by  the  light  of  reason  and  of  con- 
science ;  and  where  it  has  not  produced  an  avowed  change  of 
creed,  it  has  at  least  produced  a  change  of  realisations.  Doc- 
trines which  shock  our  sense  of  right  have  been  allowed  grad- 
ually to  become  obsolete,  or  if  they  are  brought  forward  they 
are  stated  in  language  which  is  so  colourless  and  ambiguous, 
and  with  so  many  qualifications  and  exceptions,  that  their  origi- 
nal force  is  almost  lost.  This,  however,  was  the  ultimate,  not 
the  immediate  effect  of  the  Reformation,  and  most  of  the  Re- 
formers were  far  from  anticipating  it.  They  designed  to  con- 
struct a  religious  system  which  should  be  as  essentially  dog- 
matic, distinct,  and  exclusive  as  that  which  they  assailed,  but 
Vv'hich  should  rejDresent  more  faithfully  the  teachings  of  the  first 
four  centuries.  The  Anabaptist  movement  was  accompanied 
by  so  many  excesses,  and  degenerated  so  constantly  into 
anarch V.  that  it  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  a  school  of  reli- 


366  RATIONALISM   INT   EUEOPE. 

gious  thought ;  but  it  had  at  least  the  effect  of  directing  the 
minds  of  theologians  to  the  subject  of  infant  baptism.  The 
Council  of  Trent  enunciated  very  clearly  the  doctrine  of 
Rome.  It  declared  the  absolute  necessity  of  baptism  for 
salvation  ;  it  added,  to  guard  against  every  cavil,  that  bap- 
tism must  be  by  literal  water,'  and  it  concluded  with  the 
usual  formulary  of  a  curse.  Among  the  Protestants  two 
opposite  tendencies  were  manifest.  One  of  the  first  objects 
of  the  Reformers  was  to  oppose  or  restrict  the  doctrine  that 
ceremonies  jDOSsessed  an  intrinsic  merit  independently  of  the 
disposition  of  the  worshipper,  and  it  was  not  difiicult  to  per- 
ceive that  this  doctrine  had  been  favoured  by  infant  baptism 
more  than  by  any  other  single  cause.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Protestant  taught  even  more  clearly  than  the  Cath- 
olic the  doctrine  of  imputed  righteousness,  and  was  there- 
fore more  disposed  to  dwell  upon  the  doctrine  of  imputed 
guilt.  The  Lutherans,  in  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  assert- 
ed the  absolute  necessity  of  baptism  quite  as  emphatically  as 
the  Tridentine  theologians,^  and  in  one  respect  many  of  the 
Protestants  went  beyond  the  Roman  Catholics ;  for  they 
taught  explicitly  that  the  penalty  due  to  original  sin  was 
*  eternal  fire,'  whereas  the  Church  of  Rome  had  never  for- 
mally condemned  the  notion  of  a  third  place  which  the 
Greek  Fathers  had  originated,  wliich  some  of  the  schoolmen 
had  revived,  and  which  about  the  time  of  the  Reformation 
was  very  general  among  the  Catholics.'    Calvin  Avas  in  some 

^  A  great  deal  of  controversy  had  been  excited  in  the  middle  ages  about  a 
Jew,  who,  being  converted  to  Christianity  in  a  desert,  where  there  was  no 
water,  and  being  as  was  supposed  in  a  dying  state,  was  baptised  with  sand. 
There  were  also  some  cases  of  women  baptising  their  children  with  wine.  For 
full  details  about  these,  sec  Thiers'  Trade  des  Sn!pe7'sfi/ions. 

^  Arts.  ii.  and  ix. 

^  Wall.     The  notion  of  a  limbo  had  been  so  widely  diffused  tbat  Sarpi 


ON   PEESECUTIOX.  367 

respects  more  favourable  to  unbaptised  infants  than  tlie  dis- 
ciples of  Lnthcr,  for  he  taught  that  the  children  of  bclie\^ers 
were  undoubtedly  saved,  that  the  intention  to  baptise  was 
as  eificacious  as  the  ceremony,  and  that,  although  infant  bap- 
ism  should  be  retained,  the  j^assage  in  the  discourse  to  Nico- 
dcmus  which  had  previousl)'-  been  universally  applied  to  it, 
was -susceptible  of  a  different  interpretation/  But  tliese 
doctrines  arose  simply  from  the  reluctance  of  Calvin  and  his 
followers  to  admit  the  extraordinary  efficacy  of  a  ceremony, 
and  not  at  all  from  any  moral  repugnance  to  the  doctrine  of 
transmitted  guilt.  ISTo  school  declared  more  constantly  and 
more  emphatically  the  utter  depravity  of  human  nature,  the 
sentence  of  perdition  attaching  to  the  mere  possession  of 
such  a  nature,  and  the  eternal  damnation  of  the  great 
majority  of  infants.  A  few  of  the  enthusiastic  advocates 
of  the  doctrine  of  reprobation  even  denied  the  universal  sal- 
vation of  baptised  infants,  maintaining  that  the  Almighty 


says  the  Tridentine  Fathers  at  one  time  hesitated  whether  they  should  not 
condemn  as  heretical  the  Lutheran  proposition  that  unbaptised  infants  went 
into  '  eternal  fire.'  We  find  Pascal,  however,  stating  the  doctrine  in  a  very 
repulsive  form :  '  Qu'y  a-t-il  de  plus  contraire  aux  regies  de  notre  miserable 
jug;ice  que  de  damner  eternellement  un  enfant  incapable  de  volonte  pour  un 
peche  ou  il  paroit  avoir  eu  si  peu  de  part  qu'il  est  conimis  six  millc  ans  avaut 
qu'il  fut  en  etre  ?  Certaincment  rien  ne  nous  heurte  plus  rudement  que  cette 
doctrine,  et  cependant  sans  ce  mystere  le  plus  incomprehensible  do  tous  nous 
sommes  incomprehensibles  tl  nous-memes.'  {Fensees,  cap.  iii.  §8.)  I  have 
little  doubt,  however,  that  the  more  revolting  aspect  of  the  doctrine  was  nearly 
obsolete  in  the  Church  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation.  In  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, St.  Bernard  had  said  :  '  Nihil  ardet  in  inferno  nisi  propria  voluntas.' 

'  According  to  Wall,  Calvin  was  the  very  first  theologian  who  denied  that 
the  passage,  '  Except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of  the  spirit,'  &c.,  applied 
to  baptism.  (Vol.  ii.  p.  ISO.)  Jeremy  Taylor  strongly  supported  Calvin's  view  : 
'  The  water  and  the  spirit  in  this  place  signify  the  same  thing ;  and  by  water  is 
meant  the  effect  of  the  spirit  cleansing  and  purifying  the  soul,  as  appears  in  its 
parallel  place  of  Christ  baptising  with  the  spirit  and  with  fire.'  {Liberty  of 
Prophesying^  §  18.) 


368  EATIOXALISM   m   EUEOPE. 

might  have  preclestiiiatcd  some  of  them  to  destruction.  All 
of  them  maintained  that  the  infants  who  were  saved  were 
saved  on  account  of  their  connection  with  Christianity,  and 
not  on  account  of  their  own  innocence.  All  of  them  declared 
that  the  infant  came  into  the  world  steeped  in  guilt,  and 
under  the  sentence  of  eternal  condemnation.  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards, who  was  probably  the  ablest  as  he  was  one  of  the 
most  unflinching  of  the  defenders  of  Calvinism,  has  devoted 
to  this  subject  all  the  resources  of  his  great  ingenuity.  Xo 
previous  Avriter  developed  more  clearly  the  arguments  which 
St.  Augustine  had  derived  from  the  death  of  infants,  and 
from  the  pangs  that  accompany  it ;  but  his  chief  illustrations 
of  the  relations  of  the  Deity  to  His  creatures  are  drawn  from 
those  scenes  of  massacre  when  the  streets  of  Canaan  were 
choked  with  the  multitude  of  the  slain,  and  when  the  sword 
of  the  Israelite  Avas  for  ever  bathed  in  the  infant's  blood. ^ 

So  far,  then,  the  Keformation  seems  to  have  made  little 
or  no  change.  The  doctrine  of  Catholicism,  harsh  and  re- 
pulsive as  it  appears,  does  not  contrast  at  all  unfavourably 
with  those  of  the  two  great  founders  of  dogmatic  and  con- 
servative Protestantism.  At  a  period  w^hen  passions  ran 
high,  and  when  there  was  every  disposition  to  deepen  #ie 
chasm  between  Catholicity  and  the  Reformed  Churches — 
at  a  period  therefore  when  any  tendency  to  rebel  against  the 
Catholic  doctrine  of  transmitted  guilt  would  have  been 
clearly  manifested,  that  doctrine  was  in  all  essentials  fully 
accepted.  Questions  concerning  the  nature  of  the  sacra- 
ments, the  forms  of  Church  government,  the  meaning  of 
particular  passages  of  Scripture,  the  due  order  and  subor- 
dination of  different  portions  of  theological  systems,  were 

*  See  Jonathan  Edwards  on  Original  Sin— one  of  the  most  revolting  books 
that  have  ever  proceeded  from  the  pen  of  man. 


ON    PERSECUTION.  369 

discussed  with  the  most  untiring  and  acrimonious  zeal.  All 
Europe  was  convulsed  wath  controversy,  and  the  most  pas 
sionate  enthusiasm  was  evoked.  But  the  whole  stress  and 
energy  of  tliis  enthusiasm  flow^ed  in  a  dogmatic  channel. 
It  was  not  the  revolt  of  the  reason  claiming  a  supreme 
authoiity  in  the  domain  of  thoiight;  it  was  not  the  rebellion 
of  the  moral  fliculty  against  doctrines  that  collided  with  its 
teaching :  or  if  such  elements  existed,  they  were  latent  and 
unavowed,  and  their  position  in  the  first  ebullitions  of  Prot- 
estantism w^as  entirely  subordinate.  The  germ  of  Ration- 
alism had  indeed  been  cast  abroad,  but  more  than  a  century 
was  required  to  develop  it.  There  was  no  subtlety  of  inter- 
pretation connected  w^ith  the  eucharistic  formularies  that  did 
not  excite  incomparably  more  interest  than  tlie  broad  ques- 
tions of  morality.  Conscience  was  the  last  tribunal  to  which 
men  would  have  referred  as  the  suj^reme  authority  of  their 
creed.  There  w^as  much  doubt  as  to  what  historical  authori- 
ties w^ere  most  valuable,  but  there  was  no  doubt  that  the 
ultimate  basis  of  theology  must  be  historical. 

To  this  statement  there  Vv^ere,  however,  two  eminent  ex- 
ceptions. Two  theologians,  who  differed  widely  in  their 
opinions  and  in  their  circumstances,  w^ere  nevertheless  act- 
uated by  the  same  rationalistic  spirit,  were  accustomed  to 
form  their  notions  of  truth  and  goodness  by  the  decisions 
of  their  own  reason  and  conscience,  and,  disregarding  all  the 
interpretations  of  tradition,  to  mould  and  adapt  their  creed 
to  their  ideah  These  theologians  were  Socinus  and  Zuin- 
glius,  who  may  be  regarded  as  the  representatives  of  rjation- 
alism  in  the  first  period  of  Protestantism. 

The  school  of  thought  which  La^lius  Socinus  contributed 
to  plant  at  Vicenza,  and  which  his  more  illustrious  nephew, 
in  conjunction  with  other  Italians,  spread  through  the  greater 

VOL.  I. — 21 


370  KATIONALISM   IX   EUEOPE. 

part  of  Europe,  was  the  natural  result  of  a  long  train  of  cir- 
camstances  that  had  been  acting  for  centuries  in  Italy.  The 
great  wealth  of  the  Italian  republics,  their  commercial  rela- 
tions with  men  of  all  nations  and  of  all  creeds,  the  innumer- 
able memorials  of  paganism  that  are  scattered  over  the  land, 
and  the  high  aesthetic  development  that  Avas  general,  had  all 
in  different  Avays  and  degrees  contributed  to  produce  in  Italy 
a  very  unusual  love  of  intellectual  pursuits  and  a  very  un- 
usual facility  for  cultivating  them.  -^Upon  the  fall  of  Constan- 
tinople, when  the  Greek  scholars  were  driven  into  exile, 
bearing  with  them  the  seeds  of  an  intellectual  renovation, 
Italy  was  more  than  any  other  country  the  centre  to  which 
they  were  attracted.  In  the  Italian  princes  they  found  the 
most  munificent  and  discerning  patrons,  and  in  the  Italian 
universities  the  most  congenial  asylums.  Padua  and  Bologna 
Avere  then  the  great  centres  of  free  thought.  A  series  of 
professors,  of  whom  Pomponatius  appears  to  have  been  the 
most  eminent,  had  pursued  in  these  universities  speculations 
as  daring  as  those  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  had  habit- 
uated a  small  but  able  circle  of  scholars  to  examine  theo- 
logical questions  with  the  most  fearless  scrutiny.  Tbey 
maintained  that  there  were  two  spheres  of  thought,  the 
sphere  of  reason  and  tlie  sphere  of  faith,  and  tliat  these 
spheres  were  entirely  distinct.  As  philosophers,  and  under 
the  guidance  of  reason,  they  elaborated  theories  of  the  bold- 
est and  most  unflinching  scepticism ;  as  Catholics,  and  under 
the  impulse  of  faith,  they  acquiesced  in  all  the  doctrines  ci 
their  Church.'     The  fact  of  their  accepting  certain  doctrines 

^  See,  on  the  career  of  Pomponatius,  Matter,  Ilistoire  des  Doctrines  Jforales 
des  trois  Dcrnicrs  Siccks^  torn,  i.  pp.  51-67.  Pomponatius  was  born  at  Man- 
tua in  1462,  and  died  in  1524.  His  principal  work  is  on  TIic  Immortalitij  of 
the  Sold.     lie  was  protcctea  by  Leo  X.     {Biocf,  Univ.)     Yanini  said  that  the 


ox   PERSECUTION.  371 

as  a  matter  of  faith  did  not  at  all  prevent  tliem  from  repii- 
diatin<»-  them  on  tlie  ground  of  reason ;  and  the  complete 
sci)aration  of  the  two  orders  of  ideas  enabled  them  to  pursue 
tlieir  intellectual  speculations  by  a  metliod  which  was  purely 
secular,  and  Avith  a  courage  that  was  elsewhere  unknown. 
EvQw  in  Catholicism  a  dualism  of  this  kind  could  not  long 
continue,  but  it  was  manifestly  incompatible  with  Protest- 
antism, Avhich  at  least  professed  to  make  private  judgment 
the  foundation  of  belief.  Faith  considered  as  an  unreasoning 
acquiescence  disappeared  from  theology,  and  the  order  of 
ideas  which  reason  had  established  remained  alone.  As  a 
consequence  of  all  this,  the  Reformation  in  Italy  Avas  almost 
confined  to  a  small  group  of  scholars,  Avho  preached  its  prin- 
ciples to  tlieir  extreme  limits,  with  an  unflinching  logic,  Avith 
a  disregard  for  both  tradition  and  consequences,  and  above 
all  Avith  a  secular  spirit  that  Avas  elscAvhere  unequalled.  With 
tlie  peculiar  tenets  connected  Avith  the  name  of  Socinus  Ave 
are  not  noAV  concerned,  for  the  question  of  theological 
method  is  distinct  from  that  of  theological  doctrines.  -  It  is, 
however,  sufliciently  manifest  that  although  Socinus  laid  a 
far  greater  stress  on  the  authority  of  Revelation  than  his  fol- 
lowers, the  prevailing  sentiment  Avhich  actuated  him  Avas  a 

soul  of  Averroes  had  passed  into  Pomponatius.  The  seventeenth  century  fur- 
nishes some  striking  examples  of  this  separation  of  the  philosophical  and 
theological  points  of  view.  Thus  Charron,  who  as  a  philosopher  wrote  one  of 
tlie  most  sceptical  books  of  his  age,  was  a  priest,  and  author  of  a  treatise  on 
Chrhllaii  Evidences.  Pascal  too,  in  whose  great  mind  scepticism  and  faith 
were  strangely  interwoven,  accepted  with  delight  the  Pyrrhonism  of  ^lontaigne 
as  representing  the  ultimate  fruits  of  reason,  while  firmly  grasping  Catholicism 
by  faith.  Luther  himself  had  maintained  that  a  proposition  may  be  true  in 
theology  and  false  in  philosophy— an  opinion  which  the  Sorbonne  condemned : 
'Sorbona  pessime  definivit  idem  esse  verum  in  philosophia  et  theologia,  impie- 
que  damnavit  eos  qui  contrarium  docuerint.'  (Am:iud  Saintes,  Hist,  da  Ra- 
Uonaliione  en  AUemagve,  p.  29.) 


372  EATIONALISM   IN   EUEOrE. 

desire  to  subordinate  traditional  tenets  to  the  dictates  of 
reason  and  of  conscience,  and  that  his  entire  system  of  inter- 
pretation was  due  to  this  desire.  It  is  also  evident  that  it 
was  this  spirit  tliat  induced  him  to  discard  Avith  unqualified 
severity  the  orthodox  doctrines  of  the  sinfulness  of  error  and 
of  the  transmission  of  guilt/ 

It  may  appear  at  first  sight  a  strange  j^aradox  to  repre- 
sent the  career  of  Zuinglius  as  in  any  degree  parallel  to  that 
of  Socinus.  Certainly  the  bold  and  simj^le-minded  pastor  of 
Zurich,  who  bore  with  such  an  unflinching  calm  the  blaze  of 
popularity  and  the  storms  of  controversy,  and  perished  at 
last  upon  the  battle-field,  forms  in  most  respects  a  glaring 
contrast  to  the  timid  Italian  who  spent  his  life  in  passing  from 
court  to  court  and  from  university  to  university,  shrinking 
v,'ith  nervous  alarm  from  all  opposition  and  notoriety,  and 
instilling  almost  furtively  into  the  minds  of  a  few  friends 
whom  his  gentle  manners  had  captivated  tlie  great  prin- 
ciples of  religious  toleration.  Certainly,  too,  notliing  could 
be  further  from  the  mind  of  Zuinglius  than  the  doctrines 
which  are  known  as  Socinianism,  nor  did  the  antecedents  of 
the  two  Reformers  bear  any  resemblance.  Yet  there  can,  I 
think,  be  no  doubt  that  the  dominant  predisposition  of  Zuin- 
glius also  was  to  interpret  all  tenets  according  to  the  djyrlori 
conceptions  of  reason  and  conscience.  Though  a  man  of  much 
more  than  common  ability,  he  had  but  slight  pretensions  to 
learning,  and  this,  in  an  age  when  men  are  endeavouring  to 
break  loose  from  tradition,  has  sometimes  proved  a  positive 
and  a  most  imj^ortant  advantage.  The  tendency  of  his  mind 
was  early  shown  in  the  position  he  assumed  on  the  eucharis- 
tic  controversy.  There  was  no  single  subject  in  which  the 
leading  Reformers  wavered  so  much,  none  on  whicli  they 

'  Xoandci';  Hist,  of  Dogmas^  vol.  ii.  pp.  G57,  CoS. 


ON   PEESECUTION.  373 

found  so  great  a  difficulty  in  divesting  themselves  of  their 
old  belief.  The  voice  of  reason  was  clearly  on  one  side,  the 
Vv'eight  of  tradition  inclined  to  the  other,  and  the  language 
of  Scripture  was  susceptible  of  either  interpretation.  Luther 
never  advanced  beyond  consubstantiation ;  Calvin  only  ar- 
rived at  his  final  views  after  a  long  series  of  oscillations ;  the 
English  Reformers  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  ever  arrived 
at  any  definite  conclusions.  Zuinglius  alone,  from  the  very 
beginning,  maintained  with  perfect  confidence  the  only  doc- 
trine which  accords  with  the  evidence  of  the  senses,  stated  it 
in  language  of  transparent  precision,  and  clung  to  it  with 
unwavering  tenacity.  The  same  tendency  was  shown  still 
more  clearly  in  his  decisions  on  those  points  in  which  tra- 
dition clashes  with  conscience.  It  is  surely  a  most  remarka- 
ble fact  that  in  the  age  of  such  men  as  Luther  and  Calvin, 
as  Melanchthon  and  Erasmus,  Zuinglius,  who  in  intellectual 
power  was  far  inferior  to  several  of  his  contemporaries, 
should  almost  alone  have  anticipated  the  rationalistic  doc- 
trine of  the  seventeenth  century  concerning  the  innocence  of 
error,  and  the  tolerance  that  should  be  accorded  to  it.  On 
the  subject  of  original  sin  he  separated  himself  with  equal 
boldness  from  the  other  leaders  of  the  Reformation,  maintain- 
ing that  it  was  nothing  more  than  a  malady  or  evil  tendency, 
and  that  it  did  not  in  any  degree  involve  guilt. ^ 

^  Xeander,  Hist,  of  Dogmas,  vol.  ii.  pp.  658,  059.  Bossuet  made  a  violent 
attack  upoa  this  notion  of  Zuinglius,  which  he  regarded  with  extreme  horror, 
because,  as  he  plaintively  observes,  supposing  it  to  be  true,  then  '  le  peche 
origiuel  no  damne  personne,  pas  racrae  les  cnfants  des  paiens.'  ( Variations 
Pi'oiestants,  liv.  ii.  c.  21.)  The  remarks  of  Bossuet  are  especially  worthy  of 
attention  on  account  of  the  great  clearness  with  which  he  maintains  the  uni- 
versality of  the  belief  in  the  damnable  nature  of  original  sin  in  all  sections  of 
the  Christian  Church.  He  has,  however,  slightly  overstated  the  doctrine  of 
Zuinglius.  The  Reformer  distinctly  declared  original  sin  to  be  simply  a  dis- 
ease, and  not  properly  a  sin.     From  his  language  in  his  Treatise  on  Baptkm, 


374  EATIOXALISM   IX   EUROPE. 

It  ^vas  thus  that  two  of  the  leaders  of  the  Reformatior 
were  induced  by  the  rationalistic  character  of  their  minds  to 
abandon  the  notion  of  transmitted  guilt,  and  the  doctrine 
concerning  unbaptised  infants  which  was  connected  with  it. 
If  the  current  of  opinions  has  since  then  been  flowing  in  the 
same  direction,  this  is  entirely  due  to  the  increased  diffusion 
of  a  rationalistic  spirit,  and  not  at  all  to  any  active  propa- 
gandism  or  to  any  definite  arguments.  Men  h*ave  come 
instinctively  and  almost  unconsciously  to  judge  all  doctrines 
by  their  intuitive  sense  of  right,  and  to  reject  or  explain 
away  or  throw  into  the  background  those  that  will  not  bear 
the  test,  no  matter  how  imposing  may  be  the  authority  that 
uthenticates  them.  This  method  of  judgment,  which  was 
once  very  rare,  has  now  become  very  general.  Every  gener- 
ation its  triumph  is  more  manifest,  and  entire  departments 
of  theology  have  receded  or  brightened  beneath  its  influence.^ 
How  great  a  change  has  been  effected  on  the  doctrine  con- 
cerning unbaptised  children  must  be  manifest  to  any  one 
who   considers   how   completely  the   old   doctrine  has  dis- 

it  was  inferred  that  he  asserted  the  salvation  of  pagan  infants.  However,  in 
1526,  he  wrote  a  short  treatise  On  Original  Sin,  in  which  he  said  that  his  for- 
mer work  had  been  misrepresented  ;  that  he  maintained  indeed  that  the  word 
'  sin '  was  only  applied  to  our  original  malady  by  a  figure  of  speech ;  that  he 
was  quite  sure  that  that  malady  never  in  itself  damned  Christian  children,  but 
that  he  was  not  equally  sure  that  it  never  damned  pagan  children.  He  in- 
chned,  however,  strongly  to  the  belief  that  it  did  not :  '  De  Christianorum  natis 
certi  sumus  eos  peccato  original!  non  damnari,  de  alioriun  non  itidem ;  quam- 
vis,  ut  ingenue  fateor,  nobis  probabilior  videtur  scntcntia  quam  docuiraus,  non 
temere  pronunciandum  esse  de  gentilium  quoque  natis  ct  eis  qui  opus  legil 
faciunt  ex  lege  intus  digito  Dei  scripta.'     (P.  28.)  • 

^  ChilUngworth  treated  the  subject  with  his  usual  admirable  good  sense : 
'  This  is  certain,  that  God  will  not  deal  unjustly  with  unbaptised  infants ;  but 
how  in  particular  He  will  deal  with  them  concerns  not  us,  and  so  we  need  not 
much  regard  it.'  [Religion  of  Protestants,  chap,  vii.)  Jeremy  Taylor  strongly 
rejected  both  original  sin,  in  the  sense  of  transmitted  guilt,  and  the  damnation 
of  infants  that  was  inferred  from  it. 


ox    PERSECUTION.  375 

appeared  from  popular  teaching,  and  what  a  general  and 
intense  repugnance  is  excited  by  its  simple  statement.  It 
was  once  deemed  a  mere  truism ;  it  would  now  be  viewed 
witli  horror  and  indignation  :  and  if  we  desired  any  further 
proof  of  the  extent  of  this  change,  we  should  find  it  in  the 
position  which  the  Quakers  and  the  Baptists  have  assumed 
in  Cliristendom.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  conceive  any 
sects  which  in  the  early  Church  would  havQ  been  regarded 
with  more  unmingled  abhorrence,  or  would  have  been 
deemed  more  unquestionably  outside  the  pale  of  salvation. 
It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  feeling  of  repugnance 
with  which  men  now  look  upon  the  polygamy  of  the  Mor- 
mons presents  but  a  very  faint  image  of  that  which  the 
Fathers  would  have  manifested  towards  those  who  system- 
atically withheld  from  their  children  that  baptism  which  was 
unanimously  pronounced  to  be  essential  to  their  salvation. 
Yet  the  Quakers  and  the  Baptists  have  now  obtained  a  place 
among  the  most  respected  sections  of  the  Churcli,  and  in  the 
eyes  of  very  many  Protestants  the  peculiarities  of  the  second, 
at  least,  are  not  sufficiently  serious  to  justify  any  feeling  of 
repulsion  or  to  prevent  the  most  cordial  cooperation.  For  a 
great  change  has  silently  swept  over  Christendom  :  without 
controversy  and  without  disturbance,  an  old  doctrine  has 
passed  away  from  among  the  realisations  of  mankind. 

But  the  scope  of  the  doctrine  we  are  considering  was  not 
confined  to  unbaptised  children ;  it  extended  also  to  all 
adults  who  were  external  to  the  Church.  If  tlie  whole 
Imman  race  existed  under  a  sentence  of  condemnation  which 
could  only  be  removed  by  connection  with  Christianity,  and 
if  this  sentence  was  so  stringent  that  even  the  infant  was  not 
exempt  from  its  etfects,  it  was  natural  that  the  adult  heathen 
who  added  his  personal  transgressions  to  the  guilt  of  Adam 


37G  EATIONALISM   IN    EUKOPE. 

should  be  doomed  at  last  to  perdition.  Nor  did  the  Fathers 
who  constructed  the  early  systems  of  theology  at  all  shrink 
from  the  consequence.  At  a  time  when  the  Christian  Church 
formed  but  an  infinitesimal  fraction  of  the  community,  at  a 
time  when  almost  all  the  members  who  composed  it  were 
themselves  converts  from  paganism,  and  reckoned  among  the 
pagans  those  vrho  were  bound  to  them  by  the  closest  ties  of 
gratitude  and  affection,  the  great  majority  of  the  Fathers  de- 
liberately taught  that  the  entire  pagan  world  was  doomed 
to  that  state  of  punishment  which  they  invariably  described 
as  literal  and  undying  fire.  In  any  age  and  under  any  cir- 
cumstances such  a  doctrine  must  seem  inexpressibly  shocking, 
but  it  appears  most  peculiarly  so  when  we  consider  that  the 
convert  wdio  accepted  it,  and  who  with  a  view  to  his  ovrn 
felicity  proclaimed  the  system  of  which  he  believed  it  to  form 
a  part  to  be  a  message  of  good  tidings,  must  have  acquiesced 
in  the  eternal  perdition  of  the  mother  who  had  borne  him,  of 
the  father  upon  whose  knees  he  had  played,  of  the  friends 
v\^ho  were  associated  with  the  happy  years  of  childhood  and 
early  manhood,  of  the  immense  mass  of  his  fellow-country- 
men, and  of  all  those  heroes  and  sages  who  by  their  lives  or 
precepts  had  first  kindled  a  moral  enthusiasm  within  his 
1)reast.  All  these  were  doomed  by  one  sweeping  sentence. 
Nor  were  they  alone  in  their  condemnation.  The  heretics, 
no  matter  hoAV  trivial  may  have  been  their  error,  were  re- 
served for  the  same  fearful  fate.  The  Church,  according  to 
the  favourite  image  of  the  Fathers,  was  a  solitary  ark  floating 
upon  a  boundless  sea  of  ruin.  Within  its  pale  there  was 
salvation;  without  it  salvation-  was  im230ssible.  'If  any 
one  out  of  Noah's  ark  could  escape  the  deluge,'  wrote  St. 
Cyprian,  'he  who  is  out  of  the  Church  may  also  escape.' 
'Without   this   house,'   said   Origen,   '  tliat   is,  witliout  the 


ON    PERSECUTION.  377 

Church,  no  one  is  saved.'  'I*^o  one,'  said  St.  Augustine, 
'  Cometh  to  salvation  and  eternal  life  except  he  who  hath 
Chijst  for  his  head  ;  but  no  one  can  have  Christ  for  his  head 
except  he  that  is  in  His  body  the  Church.'  ^  *  Hold  most 
firmly,'  added  St.  Fulgentius,  '  and  doubt  not  that  not  only 
all  pagans,  but  also  all  Jews,  heretics,  and  schismatics  who 
depart  from  this  present  life  outside  the  Catholic  Church,  are 
about  to  go  into  eternal  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his 
angels.'  ^  So  j)rominent  and  so  unquestionable  was  this  doc- 
trine deemed,  that  the  Council  of  Carthage,  in  the  fourth 
century,  made  it  one  of  the  test-questions  put  to  every  bishop 
before  ordination.*  t 

This  doctrine  has  had  a  greater  influence  than  perhaps 
any  other  speculative  opinion  upon  the  history  of  mankind. 
How  diiferent  it  is  from  the  conceptions  to  which  the  great 
teachers  of  antiquity  had  arrived  must  be  evident  to  any  one 
who  knows  how  fondly  they  cherished  the  doctrine  of  the 

^  I  take  these  references  from  Palmer  On  the  Church  (vol.  i.  pp.  11-13, 
3d  ed.),  where  there  is  much  evidence  on  the  subject  collected.  Mr.  Pahner 
contends  that  the  Fathers  are  unanimous  on  the  subject,  but  Barbeyrac  shows 
that  at  least  two,  and  those  of  the  earliest  (Justin  Martyr  and  Clemens  Alex- 
andrinus),  admitted  the  possible  salvation  of  the  pagans  {Morale  des  Feres, 
ch.  xi.  §  11),  and  that  the  first  expressly  said  that  Socrates  and  Ileraclitus  in 
the  sight  of  God  were  Christians.  I  am  afraid,  however,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  great  majority  of  the  Fathers  took  the  other  view.  Minucius  Felix 
thought  the  daemon  of  Socrates  was  a  devil.     {Octavim,  ch.  xxvi.) 

^  De  Fide,  §  81 ;  and  again,  still  more  explicitly :  'Omni  enim  homiui  qui 
Ecclesio3  Catholica3  non  tenet  uuitatem,  neque  baptismus  neque  eleemosyna 
quamlibet  copiosa,  neque  mors  pro  nomine  Christi  suscepta  proficerc  poterit  ad 
Balutcm,  quamdiu  eo  vel  ha3rctica  vel  schismatica  pravitas  pcrseverat  quie  ducit 
ad  mortem.'     (§  22.) 

^  Palmer,  0,i  the  Church,  vol.  i.  p.  13.  And  again  the  Synod  of  Zerta  va 
A.D.  412  :  '  Whosoever  is  separated  from  the  Catholic  Church,  however  inno- 
cently he  may  think  he  lives,  for  this  crime  alone  that  he  is  separated  from 
the  unity  of  Christ  will  not  have  life,  but  the  wrath  of  God  reraaineth  on  him.' 
This  statement  is  said  to  have  been  drawn  up  by  St.  Augustine.  See  Ilaward- 
en's  Charity  and  Truth,  pp.  39,  40  (Dublin,  1809). 


378  EATIOXALISM   IX   EUROPE. 

immortality  of  the  soul,  Low  calmly  they  contem2)lated  the 
approach  of  death,^  and  how  hopefully  they  looked  forward 
to  the  future.  Xever  can  men  forget  that  noble  Greek  who. 
struck  down  by  an  unrighteous  sentence,  summoned  around 
him  his  dearest  disciples,  and  having  reasoned  with  them  on 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  the  rewards  of  virtue  and  tlio 
goodness  of  the  gods,  took  with  a  gentle  smile  the  cup  of 
death,  and  passed  away  thanking  the  god  of  healing  who 
had  cured  him  of  the  disease  of  life.  That  'the  just  man 
should  take  confidence  in  death,''  that  he  who  has  earnestly, 
though  no  doubt  imperfectly,  tried  to  do  his  duty  has  noth- 
ing to  fear  beyond  tho  grave,  had  been  the  consoling  faith  of 
all  the  best  minds  of  antiquity.  That  the  bold,  unshackled, 
and  impartial  search  for  truth  was  among  the  noblest  and, 
therefore,  among  the  most  innocent  employments  of  man- 
kind, was  the  belief  which  inspired  all  the  philosophies  of 
the  past.  Xor  was  it  merely  or  mainly  in  the  groves  of 
Athens  that  this  spirit  was  manifested.     It  should  never  be 

^  I  know  nothing  in  the  world  sadder  than  one  of  the  sayings  of  Luther 
on  this  matter.  I  quote  it  from  that  beautiful  old  translation  of  The  Table 
Talk  by  Bell :  '  It  were  a  light  and  an  easy  matter  for  a  Christian  to  suffer 
and  overcome  death  if  he  knew  not  that  it  were  God's  wrath ;  the  same  title 
maketh  death  bitter  to  us.  But  an  heathen  dieth  securely  away  ;  he  neither 
seeth  nor  feeleth  that  it  is  God's  wrath,  but  meaneth  it  is  the  end  of  nature 
and  is  natural.  The  epicurean  says  it  is  but  to  endure  one  evil  hour.'  A  dis- 
tinguished living  antiquarian,  comparing  the  heathen  and  the  mediaeval  rep- 
resentations of  death,  observes :  '  Dans  la  societe  paicnne,  toutc  composee  du 
sensualisme  ct  de  licence,  on  se  gardait  bien  de  representer  la  mort  comme 
quclquc  chose  dc  hidcux  ;  il  ne  parait  meme  point  que  le  squclette  ait  etc  alors 
le  symbole  de  I'impitoyable  divinitc.  Mais  quand  le  Christianisrae  eut  conquis 
le  moade,  quand  une  ctcrnite  malheurcuse  dut  etrc  la  punition  dcs  fautcs  com- 
mises  ici  bas,  la  mort  qui  avait  semble  si  indifferente  aux  anciens  devint  une 
chose  dont  Ics  consequences  furent  si  terribles  pour  le  chreticu  qu'il  flillut  les 
lui  rapportcr  ;\  chaque  instant  en  frappant  ses  ycux  des  images  funebrcs.' 
(Jubinal,  Sur  les  Danscs  dcs  Morfs^  p.  8.) 

»  Pl-itc. 


ox   PEKSECUTIOX.  379 

forgotten  that  the  rationalist  has  always  found  the  highest 
expression  of  his  belief  in  the  language  of  the  prophet,  wlio 
cleclai-ed  that  the  only  service  the  Almighty  required  was  a 
life  of  justice,  of  mercy,  and  of  humility;  of  the  wise  man, 
who  summed  up  the  whole  duty  of  man  in  the  fear  of  God 
and  the  observance  of  Ilis  commandments ;  of  the  apostle, 
who  described  true  religion  as  cousisting  of  charity  and  of 
purity;  and  of  that  still  greater  Teacher,  who  proclaimed 
true  worshi]:)  to  be  altogether  spiritual,  and  who  described 
the  final  adjudication  as  the  separation  of  mankind  according 
to  their  acts  and  not  according  to  their  opinions. 

But,  however  this  may  be,  the  doctrine  of  salvation  in  the 
Church  alone  was  unanimously  adopted  wdien  Christianity 
2)assed  from  its  moral  to  its  first  dogmatic  stage,  and  on  two 
occasions  it  conferred  an  inestimable  benefit  upon  mankind. 
At  a  time  when  Christianity  was  struggling  against  the  most 
horrible  persecutions,  and  also  against  the  gross  cSiceptions 
of  an  age  that  could  obtain  but  ;i  very  partial  idea  of  its 
elevated  purity,  the  terrorism  of  this  doctrine  became  an 
auxiliary,  little  in  harmony  indeed  with  the  spirit  of  a 
philanthropic  religion,  but  admirably  suited  to  the  time,  and 
powerful  enough  to  nerve  the  martyr  with  an  unflinching 
courage,  and  to  drive  the  doubter  speedily  into  the  Church. 
Again,  when  the  ascendency  of  the  new  faith  had  become 
manifest,  it  seemed  for  a  time  as  if  its  administrative  and 
organizing  function  would  have  been  destroyed  by  the 
countless  sects  that  divided  it.  The  j^assion  for  allegory  and 
the  spirit  of  eclecticism  that  characterised  the  Eastern  con- 
verts, the  natural  subtlety  of  the  Greek  mind,  and  still  more 
the  disputatious  philosophy  of  Aristotle,  which  the  Greek 
heretics  introduced  into  the  Church,  and  which  Xestorianisni 


380  RATIOXALISM   IX    EL'EOPE. 

planted  in  the  great  school  of  Edessa/  had  produced  so  many 
and  such  yirident  controversies  that  the  whole  ecclesiastical 
fabric  seemed  dislocated,  and  intellectual  anarchy  was  im- 
minent. The  conception  of  an  authoritative  Church  was  not 
yet  fully  formed,  though  men  were  keenly  sensible  of  the 
importance  of  dogma.  It  is  computed  that  there  were  about 
ninety  heresies  in  three  centuries."  Such  questions  as  the 
double  procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  proper  day  for  cele- 
brating Easter,  the  nature  of  the  light  upon  Mount  Tabor,  or 
the  existence  in  Christ  of  two  independent  but  perfectly  co- 
incident wills,  were  discussed  with  a  ferocity  that  seems 
almost  to  countenance  the  suggestion  of  Butler,  that  com- 
munities, like  individuals,  may  be  insane.  But  here  again 
tiie  doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation  exercised  a  decisive 
influence.  As  long  as  it  was  held  and  realised,  the  diver- 
sities of  private  judgment  must  have  waged  a  most  unequal 
warfare  with  the  unity  of  authority.  Men  could  not  long 
rest  amid  the  conflict  of  opposing  arguments ;  they  could  not 
endure  that  measure  of  doubt  which  is  the  necessary  accom- 
paniment of  controversy.  All  the  fractions  of  Christianity 
soon  gravitated  to  one  or  two  great  centres,  and  a  spiritual 
despotism  was  consolidated  vdiich  alone  could  control  and 
temper  the  turbulent  elements  of  medineval  society,  could 
impose  a  moral  yoke  upon  the  most  ferocious  tyrants,  could 
accomplish  the  great  work  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  in 
Europe,  and  could  infuse  into  Christendom  such  a  measure  of 

^  It  is  remarkable  that  Aristotle,  whom  the  schoolmen  placed  almost  on  a 
level  with  the  Fathers,  owes  his  position  entirely  to  the  early  heretics ;  that 
the  introduction  of  his  philosophy  was  at  first  invariably  accompanied  by  an 
increase  of  heresy  ;  and  that  the  Fathers,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  unequiv- 
ocally denounced  it.  See  much  curious  evidence  of  this  in  AUemand-Lavi- 
gerie,  Ecole  Chrvtienne  (T £dessc.  (These  presentee  u  la  Faculty  dos  Lettres 
de  Paris,  1850.) 

^  Middleton'8  Free  EnQicir>/\  Introu.  p.  86. 


ON    PEESECUTIOX.  3S1 

pure  and  spiritual  truth  as  to  prepare  men  for  the  better 
j)hase  tliat  was  to  follow  it. 

All  this  was  done  by  the  doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation. 
At  the  Reformation,  when  the  old  Church  no  longer  har- 
monised with  the  intellectual  condition  of  Europe,  and  when 
the  spirit  of  revolt  Avas  manifested  on  all  subjects  and  in  all 
countries,  the  doctrine  was  for  the  most  i^art  nnchallenged ; 
and  although  it  imdoubtedly  produced  an  inconceivable 
amount  of  mental  suffering,  it  had  at  least  the  effect  of 
terminating  rapidly  the  anarchy  of  transition.  The  tenacity 
with  which  it  was  retained  by  the  Reformers  is  of  course 
partly  due  to  the  difficulty  of  extricating  the  mind  from  old 
theological  modes  of  thought ;  but  it  was,  I  think,  still  more 
the  result  of  that  early  tendency  to  depreciate  the  nature  and 
the  works  of  man  which  threw  them  naturally  upon  dogma- 
tic systems.  There  were,  indeed,  few  subjects  on  which  they 
were  so  unanimous.  'The  doctrine  of  salvation  in  the 
Church,'  writes  a  learned  living  author,  '  was  held  by  all  the 
Lutherans  and  Reformed,  and  by  the  sects  which  separated 
from  them,  as  Avell  as  by  the  Romish  and  other  Churches. 
Luther  teaches  that  remission  of  sins  and  sanctification  are 
only  obtained  in  it ;  and  Calvin  says,  "Beyond  the  bosom  of 
the  Church  no  remission  of  sins  is  to  be  hoped  for,  nor  any 
salvation."  The  Saxon  Confession,  presented  to  the  Synod 
of  Trent  a.d.  1551,  the  Helvetic  Confession,  the  Belgic,  the 
Scottish,  all  avow  that  salvation  is  only  to  be  had  in  the 
Churcli.  Tlie  Presbyterian  divines  assembled  at  West- 
minster, A.D.  1647,  in  their  "Humble  Advice  concerning  a 
Confession  of  Faith"  (c.  25),  declare  that "  the  visible  Church, 
which  is  also  Catholique  and  universal  under  the  Gosj^el 
(not  confined  to  one  nation,  as  before  under  the  Law),  con- 
sists of  all  those  througliout  the  world  that  profess  the  true 


382  RATIOXALISM   IN   EUROrE. 

religion  .  .  .  out  of  wliich  tliere  is  no  ordinary  possibility  of 
salvation."  •  The  IndejDendents  admitted  the  same.'  ^  Xor 
was  the  j^osition  of  the  Anglican  Church  at  all  different. 
The  Athanasian  Creed  Avas  given  an  honoured  place  among 
her  formularies,  and  the  doctrine  which  that  creed  distinctly 
asserts  was  implied  in  several  of  the  services  of  the  Church, 
and  was  strongly  maintained  by  a  long  succession  of  her 
divines.^  Among  the  leading  Reformers,  Zuinglius,  and 
Zuingiius  alone,  openly  and  unequivocally  repudiated  it.  In 
a  Confession  of  Faith  which  he  wrote  just  before  his  death, 
and  which  marks  an  important  epoch  in  the  history  of  the 
human  mind,  he  described  in  magnificent  language  that 
future  '  assembly  of  all  the  saintly",  the  heroic,  the  faithful, 
and  the  virtuous,'  when  Abel  and  Enoch,  Xoah  and  Abra- 
ham, Isaac  and  Jacob,  will  mingle  with  '  Socrates,  Aristides, 
and  Antigonus,  with  Xuma  and  Camillus,  Hercules  and 
Theseus,  the  Scipios  and  the  Catos,'  and  when  every  upright 
and  holy  man  who  has  ever  lived  will  be  present  with  his 
God.^  In  our  age,  when  the  doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation 
seldom  excites  more  than  a  smile,  such  language  aj^pears  but 
natural;  but  when  it  was  first  written  it  excited  on  all  sides 
amazement  and  indignation.  Luther  on  reading  it  said  he 
despaired  of  the  salvation  of  Zuinglius.  Bossuet  cpiotes  the 
passage  as  a  climax  to  his  charges  against  the  Swiss  Keformer, 
and  quotes  it  as  if  it  required  no  comment,  but  was  in  itself 
sufficient  to  hand  down  its  author  to  the  contempt  and 
indignation  of  posterity. 

I  shall  now  proceed  to  examine  the  more  remote  conse- 

^  Palmer,  On  the  Church,  vol.  i.  p.  13. 

-  Sec  a  great  deal  of  evidence  of  this  in  ralmer. 

^  This  passage  is  given  in  full  by  Bossuet,  Variations  Frotcsfanfes,  liv.  ii. 
c.  10.  The  original  Conf^isssion  was  published  by  BuUingcr  in  1536,  with  a 
very  laudatory  preface. 


ON   PERSECUTION  383 

quences  of  the  doctrine .  of  exclusive  salvation,  in  order  to 
trace  the  connection  between  its  decline  and  some  other 
remarkable  features  of  rationalistic  development.  In  the  first 
place,  it  is  manifest  that  the  conceptions  I  have  reviewed  are 
so  directly  oj^posed  to  our  natural  sense  of  what  is  right  and 
just,  to  all  the  conclusions  at  which  those  great  teachers 
arrived  who  evolved  their  doctrines  from  their  own  moral 
nature,  that  they  must  establish  a  permanent  opposition 
between  dogmatic  theology  and  natural  religion.  AV^hen  the 
peace  of  the  Church  has  long  been  undisturbed,  and  w^hen 
the  minds  of  men  are  not  directed  with  very  strong  interest 
to  dogmatic  questions,  conscience  will  act  insensibly  upon 
the  belief,  obscuring  or  effacing  its  true  character.  Men  will 
instinctively  endeavour  to  explain  it  away,  or  to  dilute  its 
force,  or  to  diminish  its  prominence.  But  when  the  agitation 
of  controversy  has  brought  the  doctrine  vividly  before  the 
mind,  and  when  the  enthusiasm  of  the  contest  lias  silenced 
the  revolt  of  conscience,  theology  will  be  develoj^ed  more 
and  more  in  the  same  direction,  till  the  very  outlines  of 
natural  religion  are  obliterated.  Thus  we  find  that  those 
predestinarian  theories  which  are  commonly  identified  with 
Calvin,  though  they  seem  to  have  been  substantially  held  by 
St.  Augustine,  owe  their  reception  mainly  to  the  previous 
action  of  the  doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation  upon  the  mind. 
For  the  one  objection  to  the  metaphysical  and  other  argu- 
ments the  Calvinist  can  urge,  which  will  always  appear  con- 
elusive  to  the  great  majority  of  mankind,  is  the  moral  objec- 
tion. It  is  this  objection,  and  this  alone,  which  enables  men 
to  cut  throu2;h  thatentano-linjr  maze  of  arsjuments  concerninsj 
freewill,  foreknowdedge,  and  predetermination,  in  wliieh  the 
greatest  intellects  both  of  antiquity  and  of  modern  days  have 
been  liopelessly  involved,  and  wliich  the  ablest  metaphysi* 


oStlr  KATIOXALISM    IX     EUEOPE. 

cians  have  pronounced  inextricaLle.  Take  away  the  moral 
argument :  persuade  men  that  when  ascribmg  to  the  Deity 
justice  and  mercy  they  are  si^eaking  of  qualities  generically 
distinct  from  those  which  exist  among  mankind — qualities 
which  Ave  are  altogether  unable  to  conceive,  and  which  may 
be  compatible  with  acts  that  men  would  term  grossly  unjust 
and  unmerciful :  tell  them  that  guilt  may  be  entirely  uncon- 
nected with  a  personal  act,  that  millions  of  infants  may  be 
called  into  existence  for  a  moment  to  be  precipitated  into  a 
place  of  torment,  that  vast  nations  may  live  and  die,  and 
then  be  raised  again  to  endure  a  never-ending  pimishment, 
because  they  did  not  believe  in  a  religion  of  which  they  had 
never  heard,  or  because  a  crime  was  committed  thousands  of 
years  before  they  were  in  existence  :  convince  them  that  all 
this  is  part  of  a  transcendentally  perfect  and  righteous  moral 
scheme,  and  there  is  no  imaginable  abyss  to  which  such  a 
doctrine  will  not  lead.  You  will  ha*ve  blotted  out  those 
fundamental  notions  of  right  and  wrong  which  the  Creator 
has  engraven  upon  every  heart ;  you  will  have  extinguished 
the  lamp  of  conscience ;  you  will  have  taught  men  to  stifle 
the  inner  voice  as  a  lying  witness,  and  to  esteem  it  virtuous 
to  disobey  it.  But  even  this  does  not  represent  the  full 
extent  of  the  evil.  The  doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation  not 
only  destroys  the  moral  objection  to  that  ghastly  system  of 
religious  fatalism  which  Augustine  and  Calvin  constructed ; 
it  directly  leads  to  it  by  teaching  that  the  ultimate  destiny 
of  the  immense  majority  of  mankind  is  determined  entirely 
irrespectively  of  their  will.  jMillions  die  in  infancy  ;  millions 
live  and  die  in  heathen  lands ;  millions  exist  in  ranks  of 
society  Avliere  they  have  no  opportunities  for  engaging  in 
theological  research ;  millions  are  so  encumbered  by  the 
prejudices  of  education  that  no  mental  eftbrt  can  emancipate 


ox    PERSECUTION.  385 

them  from  the  chain.  We  accordingly  find  that  predestina- 
rianisra  was  in  the  first  instance  little  more  than  a  develop- 
ment of  the  doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation.  St.  Augustine 
illustrated  it  by  the  case  of  a  mother  who  had  two  infants. 
Each  of  these  is  but  '  a  lump  of  perdition  ;'  neither  has  ever 
performed  a  moral  act.  The  mother  overlies  one,  and  it 
perishes  unbaptised ;  the  other  is  baptised,  and  is  saved. 

But  the  doctrine  of  Augustine  and  Ambrose  never  seems 
to  have  been  pushed  in  the  early  Church  to  the  same  ex- 
tremes, or  to  have  been  stated  with  the  same  precision,  as  it 
afterwards  was  by  the  Reformers. ^  The  mild  and  sagacious 
Erasmus  soon  perceived  in  this  one  of  the  principal  evils  of 
the  Reformation,  and  he  wrote  a  treatise  in  defence  of  free- 
will, which  elicited  from  Luther  one  of  the  most  unequivocal 
declarations  of  fatalism  in  the  whole  compass  of  theology, 
and  certainly  one  of  the  most  revolting.  '  The  human  will,' 
said  Luther,  '  is  like  a  beast  of  burden.  If  God  mounts  it,  it 
wishes  and  goes  as  God  wills ;  if  Satan  mounts  it,  it  wishes 
and  goes  as  Satan  wills.  Xor  can  it  choose  the  rider  it 
would  prefer,  or  betake  itself  to  him,  but  it  is  the  riders  who 
contend  for  its  possession.'  ^    '  This  is  the  acme  of  faith,  to  be- 

^  The  doctrine  of  double  predestination  was,  however,  maintained  in  the 
ninth  century  by  a  monk  named  Gotteschalk,  who  was  opposed  by  Hincmar, 
Archbishop  of  Rheims,  in  the  spirit  of  a  theologian,  and  by  Scotus  Erigena  in 
the  spirit  of  a  freethinker.  For  an  account  of  this  once-famous  controversy 
see  the  learned  work  of  M.  St.  Rene  Taillandier,  Scot  Erighie  d  la  FhilosopJiic 
Scholastigice  (Strasbourg,  1843),  pp.  51-58  ;  and  for  a  contemporary  view  of 
the  opinions  of  Gotteschalk,  see  a  letter  by  Amulo,  Archbishop  of  Lyons  (the 
unmediate  successor  of  Agobard),  printed  with  the  works  of  Agobard  (Paris, 
1666).  According  to  Amulo,  Gotteschalk  not  only  held  the  doctrines  of  repro- 
bation and  particular  redemption,  but  even  declared  that  the  Almighty  rejoiced 
and  exulted  over  the  destruction  of  those  who  were  predestinated  to  damna- 
tion. Gotteschalk  was  condemned  to  be  degraded  from  the  priesthood,  to  be 
imprisoned,  and  to  be  scourged.  (Llorente,  Hist,  de  Vlnqnisition^  tom.  i. 
p.  20.) 

^  *  Sic  humana  voluntas  in  medio  posita  est  ecu  jumeutum.  Si  insederit 
VOL.  I, — 25 


386  RATIOXALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

lieve  that  He  is  merciful  who  saves  so  few  and  who  condemns 
?o  many;  that  He  is  just  who  at  His  own  pleasure  has  made 
us  necessarily  doomed  to  damnation ;  so  that,  as  Erasmus 
says,  He  seems  to  delight  in  the  tortures  of  the  wretched, 
and  to  be  more  deserving  of  hatred  than  of  love.  If  by  any 
effort  of  reason  I  could  conceive  hovf  God  could  be  merciful 
and  just  who  shovrs  so  much  anger  and  iniquity,  there 
would  be  no  need  for  faith.'  ^  '  God  foreknows  nothing  sub- 
ject to  contingencies,  but  He  foresees,  foreordains,  and  accom- 
plishes all  things  by  an  unchanging,  eternal,  and  efficacious 
will.  By  this  thunderbolt  freewill  sinks  shattered  in  the  dust.' " 
Such  were  the  opinions  of  the  greatest  of  the  Reformers. 
The  doctrine  of  Calvin  and  his  school  was  equally  explicit. 
According  to  them,  the  Fall,  with  all  its  consequences,  was 
predetermined  ages  before  the  Creation,  and  was  the  neces- 


Deus,  vult  et  vadit  quo  vult  Deus,  ut  Fsalraus  dicit :  "Factus  sum  sicut  jumen- 
tum  et  ego  semper  tecum."  Si  insederit  Satan,  vult  et  vadit  quo  vult  Satan. 
Nee  est  in  ejus  arbitrio  ad  utrum  sessorem  currere  aut  eum  quoerere,  sed  ipsi 
sessores  certant  ob  ipsum  obtinendum  et  possidendum.'  {De  Servo  Arbitrio, 
pars  i.  sec.  24.) 

^  'Hie  est  fidei  summus  gradus,  credere  ilium  esse  clementem  qui  tarn 
paucos  salvat  tarn  multos  damnat ;  credere  justum  qui  sua,  voluutate  nos  necea- 
sario  damnabiles  facit ;  ut  videatur,  referente  Erasmo,  d'electari  ciniciatibus 
miserorum,  et  odio  potius  quam  amore  dignus.  Si  igitur  possem  ulla  ratione 
comprehendere  quomodo  is  Deus  misericors  et  Justus,  qui  tantum  iram  et 
iniquitatem  ostendit,  non  esset  opus  fide.'     (Ibid.  sec.  23.) 

^  '  Est  itaquG  et  hoc  imprimis  necessarium  et  salulare  Christiano  nosse, 
quod  Deus  nihil  prccscit  contiugiter,  sed  quod  omnia  incommutabilia  et  setema, 
infaUibilique  voluntate  et  proevidet  et  pracpouit  et  facit.  Hoc  fulmine  sternitur 
ct  contcritur  penitus  liberum  arbitrium.'  (Sec.  10.)  I  give  these  sections 
according  to  Vaughan's  translation  (1823),  for  in  the  original  edition  (1526) 
\here  are  no  divisions,  and  the  pages  are  not  numbered.  Melanchthon,  in  the 
viditiou  of  his  Commonplaces,  expressed  extreme  predestinarian  views,  but 
omitted  them  in  later  editions.  Luther,  in  his  old  age,  said  he  could  not  re- 
view with  perfect  satisfaction  any  of  his  works  except,  perhaps,  his  Catechism 
aud  his  De  Servo  Arbitrio  (Vaughan's  Preface,  p.  57).  There  is  a  full  notice 
»f  this  book  in  one  of  Sir  "W.  Hamilton's  essays. 


ON    PERSECUTION.  387 

saiy  consequence  of  that  predetermination.  The  Almighty, 
they  taught,  irrevocably  decided  the  fate  of  each  individual 
long  before  lie  called  him  into  existence,  and  has  predesti- 
nated millions  to  His  hatred  and  to  eternal  damnation. 
With  that  object  He  gave  them  being — with  that  object  He 
withholds  from  them  the  assistance  that  alone  can  correct 
the  perversity  of  the  nature  with  which  He  created  them. 
He  will  hate  them  during  life,  and  after  death  He  will  cast 
them  into  the  excruciating  torments  of  undying  fire,  and  will 
watch  their  agonies  without  compassion  through  the  count- 
less ages  of  eternity.^ 

It  is  needless  to  comment  upon  such  teaching  as  this. 
That  it  makes  the  Deity  the  direct  author  of  sin,'^  that  it  sub- 
verts all  our  notions  of  justice  and  of  mercy,  that  the  simple 

^  On  Calvin's  views,  see  especially  liis  De  JEicrna  Dei  Frccdesdnaiione, 
and  his  Listiiut.  Christ,  lib.  iii.  e.  21-23.  But  perhaps  their  clearest  and  most 
emphatic  statement  is  in  a  work  of  Beza,  De  JEtcrna  Dei  Prcedestinaiionc, 
contra  Sehastianum  Castellionem  (published  in  the  Opiiscula  of  Beza,  Geneva:, 
1058),  The  pointed  objections  on  the  score  of  moral  rectitude  of  his  rational- 
istic opponent  brought  the  enormities  of  the  Calviuistic  doctrine  into  the  fullest 
relief.  There  is  a  curious  old  translation  of  this  work,  under  the  title  of 
BezoDs  Display  of  Popish  Practices^  or  Patched  Pelagianism^  translated  ))y 
W.  Hopkinson  (London,  1578).  Beza  especially  insists  on  the  unfairness  of 
accusing  Calvinists  of  asserting  that  God  so  hated  some  men  that  He  predes- 
tinated them  to  destruction ;  the  truth  being  that  God  of  His  free  sovereignty 
predestinated  them  to  destruction,  and  therefore  to  His  hatred ;  so  that  '  God 
is  not  moved  with  the  hatred  of  any  that  He  should  drive  him  to  destruction, 
but  He  hath  hated  whom  He  hath  predestinated  to  destruction.'  Another 
point  on  which  Jonathan  Edwards  especially  has  insisted  (in  his  Freedom  oj 
Will)  is  that  there  can  be  no  injustice  in  punishing  voluntary  transgression, 
and  that  the  transgressions  of  the  reprobate  are  voluntary ;  men  having  been 
since  Adam  created  with  wills  so  hopelessly  corrupt  that  withou-t  Divine  assist- 
ance they  must  inevitably  be  damned,  and  God  having  in  the  majority  of  cases 
resolved  to  withhold  that  assistance.  The  fatality,  therefore,  docs  not  consist 
in  man  being  compelled  to  do  certain  things  whether  he  wishes  it  or  not,  but 
in  his  being  brought  into  the  vorld  with  such  a  nature  that  his  wishes  neces- 
earily  tend  in  a  given  direction. 

'  Calvinists,  ipdeed,  often  protest  against  this  conclusion  ;  but  it  is  ulmosi 


388  EATIOXALISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

statement  of  it  is  inexpressibly  sliocking  and  revolting,  can 
scarcely  be  denied  by  its  warmest  suj^porters.  Indeed,  when 
we  combine  this  teaching  with  the  other  doctrines  I  have 
considered  in  the  present  chapter,  the  Avhole  maybe  regarded 
as  unequalled  in  the  religious  history  of  mankind.  In  our 
age  such  tenets  have  retired  from  the  blaze  of  day ;  they  are 
found  only  in  the  obscure  writings  of  obscure  men.  Since 
Jonathan  Edwards  they  have  had  no  exponent  of  undoubted 
genius,  and  no  distinguished  writer  could  venture  without 
a  serious  loss  of  reputation  openly  to  profess  them.  Such 
language  as  was  employed  on  this  subject  by  men  like 
Luther,  Calvin,  and  Beza,  while  in  the  zenith  of  their  popu- 
larity, would  not  now  be  tolerated  for  a  moment  outside  a 
small  and  uninfluential  circle.  The  rationalistic  spirit  has  so 
pervaded  all  our  habits  of  thought,  that  every  doctrine 
which  is  repugnant  to  our  moral  sense  excites  an  intense 
and  ever-increasing  aversion;  and  as  the  doctrine  of  ex- 
clusive salvation,  which  prepared  the  mind  for  the  doctrine 
of  reprobation,  is  no  longer  realised,  the  latter  appears  pecu- 
liarly revolting. 

Another  very  important  subject  upon  which  the  doctrine 
of  exclusive  salvation  has  exercised  great  influence,  is  the 
relation  between  dogmas  and  morals.  The  older  theologians 
invariably  attributed  to  dogmas  an  intrinsic  eflicacy  which 
was  entirely  independent  of  their  effect  upon  life.     Thus  we 

self-evident,  and  the  ablest  writer  of  the  school  admits  it  in  a  sense  which  is 
quite  sufBcieutly  large  for  his  opponents :  '  If  by  the  author  of  sm  is  meant 
the  permitter  or  not  hinderer  of  ein,  and  at  the  same  time  a  disposer  of  the 
Btate  of  events  in  such  a  manner  for  wise,  holy,  and  most  excellent  ends  and 
purposes  that  sin,  if  it  be  permitted  or  not  hindered,  will  most  certainly  and 
iafiiUibly  follow ;  I  say,  if  this  be  all  that  is  meant,  I  do  not  deny  that  God  is 
tUe  autlior  of  sin.'  (Jonathan  Edwards,  Freedom  of  Will,  p.  3G9.)  The  pre- 
destination of  the  fall  of  Adam,  whose  will  was  not  hopelessly  corrupt,  has  of 
course  its  own  pocuhar  difficulties. 


ox   PERSECUTIOX.  389 

have  already  had  occasion  to  observe,  that  in  the  early 
Churcli  no  controversies  were  deemed  so  important  as  those 
which  concerned  the  connection  between  the  two  natures  in 
Christ,  and  that  at  the  Reformation  the  acceptance  or  rejec- 
tion of  transubstantiation  was  made  the  habitual  test  of  or- 
thodoxy. On  the  other  hand,  the  politician,  in  a  secular  age, 
is  inclined  to  value  religious  systems  solely  according  to 
their  influence  upon  the  acts  of  mankind.  He  sees  that  re- 
ligious controversies  have  often  dislocated  the  social  system, 
have  presented  an  insuperable  obstacle  to  the  fusion  of  the 
different  elements  of  a  nation,  have  produced  long  and  san- 
guinary wars,  and  have  diverted  a  large  proportion  of  intel- 
lect and  energy  from  enterprises  that  are  conducive  to  the 
welfare  of  society.  These  he  considers  the  evils  of  theology, 
which  are  compensated  for  by  the  control  that  it  exercises 
over  the  passions  of  mankind,  by  the  high  sense  of  duty  it 
diffuses,  and  by  the  intensity  of  the  philanthropy  it  in- 
spires. His  object  therefore  is  to  encourage  a  system  in 
which  the  moral  restraint  shall  be  as  great  as  possible,  and 
the  dogmatic  elements  shall  be  few  and  torpid.  The  rational- 
ist occupies  a  central  position  between  tlie  two.  Like  the 
early  theologian,  he  denies  that  the  measm-e  of  theological 
excellence  is  entirely  utilitarian ;  like  the  politician,  he  de- 
nies that  dogmas  possess  an  intrinsic  efficacy.  He  believes 
that  they  are  intended  to  act  upon  and  develop  the  affective 
or  emotional  side  of  human  nature,  that  they  are  the  vehicles 
by  which  certain  principles  are  conveyed  into  the  mind 
v\'hich  would  otherwise  never  be  received,  and  tliat  wlien 
they  have  discharged  their  functions  they  must  lose  their 
importance.  In  the  earlier  phases  of  society  men  have  never 
succeeded  in  forming  a  purely  spiritual  and  moral  conception 
of  the  Deity,  and  they  therefore  make  an  image  which  they 


39n  EATIOXALISM   IN   EUKOPE. 

Avorsliip.  By  this  means  the  concei)tiou  of  the  Deity  is  falsi- 
fied and  debased,  but  the  moral  influence  of  worship  is  re- 
tained: a  great  evil  is  the  price  of  an  inestimable  benefit. 
As,  however,  men  obtain  with  increasing  civilisation  a  ca- 
pacity for  forming  purer  and  more  moral  conceptions,  idola^ 
try  becomes  an  unmingled  evil,  and  is  in  consequence  at  la-^t 
abandoned.  Just  in  the  same  way  a  purely  moral  religion, 
appealing  to  a  disinterested  sense  of  duty  and  perception  of 
excellence,  can  -nexev  be  efficacious  in  an  early  condition  of 
society.  It  is  consequently  materialised,  associated  with  in- 
numerable ceremonies,  with  elaborate  creeds,  with  duties 
that  have  no  relation  to  moral  sentiments,  with  an  ecclesias- 
tical framework,  and  with  a  copious  legendary.  Through 
all  this  extraneous  matter  the  moral  essence  filters  down  to 
the  people,  preparing  them  for  the  higher  phases  of  develop- 
ment. Gradually  the  ceremonies  drop  away,  the  number  of 
doctrines  is  reduced,  the  ecclesiastical  ideal  of  life  and  char- 
acter is  exchanged  for  the  moral  ideal ;  dogmatic  conceptions 
manifest  an  increased  flexibility,  and  the  religion  is  at  last 
transfigured  and  regenerated,  radiant  in  all  its  parts  with  the 
pure  spirit  that  had  created  it. 

It  is  manifest  that  according  to  this  view  there  exists  a 
perpetual  antagonism  between  the  dogmatic  and  the  moral 
elements  of  a  religious  system,  and  that  their  relative  influ- 
ence will  depend  mainly  on  the  degree  of  civilisation ;  an 
amount  of  dogmatic  pressure  which  is  a  great  blessing  in  one 
age  being  a  great  evil  in  another.  JS'ow  one  of  the  most  ob- 
vious consequences  of  the  doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation  is, 
that  it  places  the  moral  in  permanent  subordination  to  the 
doo-matic  side  of  religrion.  If  there  be  a  Catholic  faith  *  which 
except  a  man  believe  he  cannot  be  saved,'  it  is  quite  natural 
-.hat  men  should   deem  it  'before  cdl  things'  necessary  to 


ON    PEESECUTIOX.  391 

hold  it.  If  the  purest  moral  life  cannot  atone  for  error,  while 
a  true  religion  lias  many  means  of  effacing  guilt,  the  mind 
will  naturally  turn  to  tlie  doctrinal  rather  than  to  the  practi- 
cal side.  The  extent  to  which  this  tendency  has  been  mani- 
fested in  the  Church  of  Kome  is  well  known.  Protestant 
controversialists  have  often  drawn  up  long  and  perfectly 
authentic  lists  ©f  celebrated  characters  who  were  stained 
Avith  every  crime,  and  who  have  nevertheless  been  among 
the  favourites  of  the  Church,  who  have  clung  to  her  ordinan- 
ces with  full  orthodox  tenacity,  who  have  assuaged  by  her 
absolution  every  qualm  of  conscience,  and  who  have  at  last, 
by  endowing  a  monastery  or  undergoing  a  penance  or  direct- 
ing a  persecution  against  heretics,  persuaded  themselves  that 
they  had  effiiccd  all  the  crimes  of  their  lives.  In  Protestant- 
ism this  combination  of  devotion  and  immorality,  which  is 
not  to  be  confounded  vath  hypocrisy,  is  I  think  more  rare. 
Lives  like  that  of  Benvenuto  Cellini,  in  which  the  most 
atrocious  crimes  alternate  with  ecstasies  of  the  most  raptu- 
rous and  triumphant  piety,  are  scarcely  ever  to  be  met  with, 
yet  it  would  be  rash  to  say  that  the  evil  is  unknown.  The 
two  countries  which  are  most  thoroughly  pervaded  by  Prot- 
estant theology  are  probably  Scotland  and  Sweden ;  and  if  we 
measure  their  morality  by  the  common  though  somewhat  de- 
fective test  that  is  furnished  by  the  number  of  illegitimate 
births,  the  first  is  well  known  to  be  considerably  below  the 
average  morality  of  European  nations,  while  the  second,  in  this 
as  in  general  criminality,  has  been  pronounced  by  a  very  able 
and  impartial  Protestant  witness,  who  has  had  the  fullest 
means  of  judging,  to  be  very  far  below  every  other  Christian 
nation.^ 

'  See  Laing's  Sweden^  pp.  108-141,  -vNiicrc  this  question  is  minutely  ex- 
amined.    This  is  a  mere  question  of  figures.      The  following  passage  from 


392  RATIOXAI.ISM   Ul   EUEOPE. 

These  are  the  contradictions  that  result  from  the  doctrine 
of  exclusive  salvation  among  those  who  do  not  belong  to  a 
high  order  of  sanctity,  and  who  gladly  purchase  a  licence  for 
the  indulgence  of  their  passions  by  an  assiduous  cultivation 
of  what  they  deem  the  more  imjDortant  side  of  their  faith. 
A  very  much  more  general  tendency,  and  one  which  has 
exercised  a  far  more  pernicious  influence  upon  the  history  of 
mankind,  is  displayed  by  those  whose  zeal  is  entirely  unself- 
ish. Beinsj  convinced  that  no  misfortune  can  be  so  cfreat  as 
heresy,  and  that  the  heretic  is  doomed  to  eternal  misery, 
they  have  habitually  supported  their  creed  by  imposture  and 
falsehood.  That  they  should  do  this  is  quite  natural.  What- 
ever may  be  the  foundation  of  the  moral  law,  it  is  certain 
that  in  the  eyes  of  the  immense  majority  of  mankind  there 
are  some  overwhelming  considerations  that  Avill  justify  a 
breach  of  its  provisions.  If  some  great  misfortune  were  to 
befall  a  man  who  lay  on  a  sickbed,  trembling  between  life 
and  death;    if  the   physician  declared  that  the  knowledge 

another  work  of  the  same  writer  is  less  susceptible  of  decisive  proof,  and  is, 
I  am  inclined  to  think,  somewhat  overstated,  but  is  nevertheless  very  sugges- 
tive :  '  The  Swiss  people  present  to  the  political  philosopher  the  unexpected 
and  most  remarkable  social  phenomenon  of  a  people  eminently  moral  in  con- 
duct, yet  eminently  irreligious  :  at  the  head  of  the  moral  state  in  Europe,  not 
merely  for  absence  of  numerous  or  great  crimes,  or  of  disregard  of  right,  but 
for  ready  obedience  to  law,  for  honesty,  fidehty  to  their  engagements,  for  fair- 
ilcahng,  sobriety,  industry,  orderly  conduct,  for  good  government,  useful  pub- 
lic institutions,  general  wellbeing,  and  comfort ;  yet  at  the  bottom  of  the  scale 
for  religious  feeling,  observances,  or  knowledge,  especially  in  the  Pi'otestant 
cantons,  in  which  prosperity,  wellbeing,  and  morality  seem  to  be,  as  compared 
to  the  Catholic  cantons,  in  an  inverse  ratio  to  the  influence  of  religion  on  the 
people.  .  .  .  It  is  a  very  remai-kable  social  state,  similar,  perhaps,  to  that 
of  the  ancient  Romans,  in  whom  morality  and  social  virture  were  also  sus- 
tained without  the  aid  of  religious  influences.'  (Laing's  Notes  of  a  Traveller^ 
pp.  146,  147.)  Dr.  Arnold  said,  I  think  truly,  that  the  popular  notion  about 
the  superior  prosperity  of  the  Protestant  over  the  Catholic  cantons  is  greatly 
exaggerated :  it  exists  in  some  cases  and  not  in  others. 


ox   PERSECUTION.  393 

of  that  misfortune  would  be  certain  deatli  to  the  patient ; 
and  if  concealment  was  only  possible  by  a  folsehood,  there 
are  very  few  moralists  who  would  condemn  that  falsehood. 
If  the  most  ardent  denouncer  of  '  pious  frauds'  were  to  meet 
an  assassin  in  pursuit  of  an  innocent  man,  and  were  able  by 
misdirecting  the  pursuer  to  save  the  fugitive,  it  may  b^safely 
predicted  that  the  lie  would  be  unscrupulously  uttered.  It 
is  not  very  easy  to  justify  these  things  by  argument,  or  to 
draw  a  clear  line  between  criminal  and  innocent  falsehood ; 
but  that  there  are  circumstances  which  justify  untruth  has 
always  been  admitted  by  the  common  sentiment  of  mankind, 
and  has  been  distinctly  laid  down  by  the  most  eminent 
moralists.^  When  therefore  a  man  believes  that  those  who 
adopt  an  erroneous  opinion  will  be  consigned  to  perdition ; 
when  he  not  only  believes  this,  but  realises  it  as  a  living  and 
operative  truth ;  and  when  he  perceives  that  it  is  possible 
either  by  direct  falsehood  or  by  the  suppression  or  distortion 
of  truth  to  strengthen  the  evidences  of  his  fliith,  he  usually 
finds  the  temptation  irresistible.  But  there  are  two  very 
important  distinctions  betv/een  the  hypothetical  cases  I  have 
mentioned  and  the  pious  frauds  of  theologians.  The  first  are 
the  results  of  isolated  moral  judgments,  Avhile  the  latter  are 
systematised  and  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  regular  doctrine. 
The  first,  again,  spring  from  circumstances  that  are  so 
extremely  rare  and  exceptional  that  they  can  scarcely  have 
any  perceptible  influence  upon  the  general  veracity  of  the 
person  Avho  utters  them,  while  the  second  induce  a  habit  of 
continual  falsehood.  Tlie  Fathers  laid  down  as  a  distinct 
proposition    that    pious   frauds   were    justifiable   and   even 

^  Thus,  not  to  quote  Roman  Catholic  authorities,  Jeremy  Taylor,  in  the 
Dudor  JDubitaniium,  hb.  iii.  e.  2,  lays  down  several  cases  of  justifiable  false- 
hood. 


394  EATIOXALISM   IN    EUEOPE. 

laudable  ;  ^  and  if  they  Lad  not  laid  this  down,  they  would 
nevertheless  have  practised  them  as  a  necessary  consequence 
of  their  doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation.  Immediately  all 
ecclesiastical  literature  became  tainted  with  a  Sj^irit  of  the 
most  unblushing  mendacity.  Heathenism  was  to  be  com- 
bated, and  therefore  prophecies  of  Christ  by  Orpheus  and 
tlie  Sibyls  were  forged,  lying  wonders  were  multiplied,  and 
ceaseless  calumnies  j^oured  upon  those  who,  like  Julian, 
opposed  the  faith.  Heretics  were  to  be  convinced,  and 
therefore  interpolations  of  old  writings  or  complete  forgeries 
were  habitually  opposed  to  the  forged  Gospels.  The  venera- 
tion of  relics  and  the  monastic  system  were  introduced,  and 
therefore  innumerable  miracles  were  attributed  to  the  bones 
of  saints  or  to  the  prayers  of  hermits,  and  were  solemnly 
asserted  by  the  most  eminent  of  the  Fathers.'^     The  tendency 

^  See  on  this  subject  the  evidence  collected  in  Middleton's  Free  Enquiry  ; 
the  curious  panegyric  on  the  habit  of  telling  lies  in  St.  Chrysostom  On  the 
PriestJiood ;  the  remarks  of  Coleridge  in  The  Friend^  and  of  Maury,  Croy- 
ances  et  Legendes,  p.  268.  St.  Augustine,  however,  is  in  this  respect  an  ex- 
ception. In  his  treatise  Contra  Mendacium  he  strongly  denounces  the  ten- 
dency, and  especially  condemns  the  Priscillianists,  among  whom  it  appears  to 
have  been  very  common,  and  also  certain  Cathohcs  who  thought  it  justifiable 
to  pretend  to  be  Priscillianists  for  the  purpose  of  discovering  the  secrets  of 
that  sect.  The  most  revolting  aspect  of  this  subject  is  the  notion  that  heretics 
are  so  intensely  criminal  as  to  have  no  moral  rights — a  favourite  doctrine  in 
Catholic  countries  where  no  Protestant  or  sceptical  pubUc  opinion  exists.  Thus 
the  Spanish  Bishop  Simancas — *  Ad  poenam  quoque  pertinet  et  haereticorum 
odium,  quod  fides  illis  data  servanda  non  est.  Nam  si  tyrannis,  piratis,  et 
CJEteris  prsedonibus  quia  corpus  occidunt  fides  servanda  non  est,  longe  minus 
hicreticis  pcrtinacibus  qui  occidunt  animas.'  {De  Catliolicu  Institutionihus, 
p.  365.) 

-  Since  the  last  note  was  written,  this  subject  has  been  discussed  at  some 
length  by  Dr.  Newman,  in  his  Apologia  pro  Vita  sua.  I  do  not,  however,  find 
anything  to  alter  in  what  I  have  stated.  Dr.  Newman  says  (Appendix,  p.  11): 
'  The  Greek  Fathci'S  thought  that,  when  there  was  a  justa  causa,  an  untruth 
need  not  be  a  lie.  St.  Augustine  took  another  view,  though  with  gi-eat  mis- 
giving, and,  whether  he  is  rightly  interpreted  or  not,  is  the  doctor  of  the  great 
and  common  view  that  all  untruths  are  lies,  and  tliat  there  can  be  no  just 


O:!^  PERSECUTIOX.  395 

was  not  confined  to  those  Eastern  nations  which  had  been 
ahvays  almost  destitute  of  the  sense  of  truth  ;  it  triumphed 
wherever  the  supreme  importance  of  dogmas  was  held. 
Generation  after  generation  it  became  more  universal ;  it 
continued  till  the  very  sense  of  truth  and  the  very  love  of 
truth  seemed  blotted  out  from  the  minds  of  men. 

Tliat  this  is  no  exaggerated  picture  of  the  condition  at 
which  the  middle  ages  arri\Td,  is  known  to  all  who  have  any 
acquaintance  with  its  literature;  for  during  that  gloomy 
period  the  only  scholars  in  Europe  were  priests  and  monks, 
who  conscientiously  believed  that  no  amount  of  falsehood 
was  reprehensible  which  conduced  to  tlie  edification  of  the 
people.  ^N'ot  only  did  they  j^ursue  with  the  grossest  calumny 
every  enemy  to  their  faith,  not  only  did  they  encircle  every 
saint  with  a  halo  of  palpable  fiction,  not  only  did  they  invent 
tens  of  thousands  of  miracles  for  the  purpose  of  stimulating 
dcA^otion — they  also  very  naturally  carried  into  all  other 
subjects  the  indifference  to  truth  they  had  acquired  in  the- 
ology. All  their  writings,  and  more  especially  their  histories, 
became  tissues  of  the  wildest  fables,  so  grotesque  and  at  the 
same  time  so  audacious,  that  they  were  the  Avonder  of  suc- 
ceeding ages.  And  the  very  men  who  scattered  tliese 
fictions  broadcast  over  Christendom,  taught  at  the  same  time 
that  credulity  was  a  virtue  and  scepticism  a  crime.  As  long 
as  the  doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation  was  believed  and 
realised,  it  was  necessary  for  the  peace  of  mankind  that  they 
sliould  be  absolutely  certain  of  the  truth  of  what  they 
believed  ;  in  order  to  be  so  certain,  it  was  necessary  to  sup- 


cause  of  untruth.  .  .  .  Now,  as  to  the  just  cause,  the  Greek  Fathers 
make  them  such  as  these — self-defence,  charity,  zeal  for  Gods  honour,  and 
the  Uke.'  It  is  plain  enough  that  this  last  would  include  all  of  what  are  con> 
monly  termed  pious  frauds.  ^ 


EATIOXALISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

press  adverse  arguments;  and  in  order  to  effect  this  object, 
it  was  necessary  that  there  should  "be  no  critical  or  sceptical 
spirit  in  Europe.  A  habit  of  boundless  credulity  was  there- 
fore a  natural  consequence  of  the  doctrine  of  exclusive  salva- 
tion; and  not  only  did  this  habit  necessarily  produce  a 
luxuriant  crop  of  falsehood,  it  was  itself  the  negation  of  the 
spirit  of  truth.  For  the  man  who  really  loves  truth  cannot 
possibly  subside  into  a  condition  of  contented  credulity.  He 
will  pause  long  before  accepting  any  doubtful  assertion,  he 
will  carefully  balance  opposing  arguments,  he  will  probe 
every  anecdote  with  scrupulous  care,  he  will  endeavour  to 
divest  himself  of  every  prejudice,  he  will  cautiously  abstain 
from  attributing  to  probabilities  the  authority  of  certainties. 
These  are  the  essential  characteristics  of  the  spirit  of  truth, 
and  by  their  encouragement  or  suppression  we  can  judge  how 
far  a  system  of  doctrine  coincides  with  that  spirit. 

We  have  seen  that  there  were  three  ways  in  which  the 
indissoluble  association  of  salvation  with  a  particular  form 
of  belief  produced  or  promoted  the  absolute  indifference  to 
truth  and  the  boundless  credulity  that  characterised  the  ages 
in  which  theology  was  supreme.  It  multiplied  to  an  enor- 
mous extent  pious  frauds,  Vv^hich  were  perpetrated  without 
scruple  because  they  were  supposed  to  produce  inestimable 
benefits  to  mankind.  It  rendered  universal  that  species  of 
falsehood  which  is  termed  misrepresentation,  and  which  con- 
sists mainly  of  the  suppression  of  all  opposing  facts  ;  and  it 
crushed  that  earnestness  of  enquiry  which  is  at  once  the 
essential  characteristic  of  the  love  of  truth,  and  the  solo 
bulwark  against  the  encroachments  of  errpr.  There  was, 
however,  yet  another  way,  which,  though  very  closely  con- 
nected with  the  foregoing,  is  sufficiently  distinct  to  claim  a 
separate  consideration. 


ON   PERSECUTIOX.  397 

A  love  of  truth,  by  the  very  definition  of  the  terms,  implies 
a  resohition  under  all  circumstances  to  approach  as  nearly  as 
possible  to  its  attainment ;  or  in  other  words,  when  demon- 
stration is  impossible,  to  adopt  the  belief  Avhich  seems  most 
probable.  In  this  respect  there  is  an  important  difference 
between  speculative  and  practical  life.  He  who  is  seeking 
for  truth  is  bound  always  to  follow  wliat  appears  to  his  mind 
to  be  the  stress  of  probabilities ;  but  in  action  it  is  some- 
times wise  to  shape  our  course  with  a  view  to  the  least  prob- 
able contingency ;  because  we  have  to  consider  not  merely 
the  comparative  probabilities  of  success  afforded  by  different 
courses,  but  also  the  magnitude  of  the  results  that  would 
ensue.  Thus,  a  man  is  justly  regarded  as  prudent  who  in- 
sures liis  house  against  fire,  though  an  absolute  and  unre- 
quited loss  is  the  most  probable  consequence  of  his  act ;  be- 
cause the  loss  he  would  suffer  in  the  more  probable  contin- 
gency is  inconsiderable,  and  the  advantage  he  would  derive 
from  the  insurance  in  the  less  probable  contingency  is  very 
jxreat.  From  this  consideration  Pascal — v/ho  with  Fcrmat 
was  the  founder  of  Avhat  may  be  termed  the  scientific  treat- 
ment of  probabilities — derived  a  very  ingenious  argument 
in  defence  of  his  theological  opinions,  which  was  afterwards 
adopted  by  an  English  mathematician  named  Craig.'  They 
contended,  that  when  a  religious  system  promises  infinite 
rewards  and  threatens  infinite  punishments,  it  is  the  part  of 
a  Avise  man  to  sacrifice  the  present  to  embrace  it,  not  merely 
if  he  believes  the  probabilities  to  preponderate  in  its  favour, 
but  even  if  he  regards  its  truth  as  extremely  improbable, 
provided  the  probabilities  against  it  are  not  infinite.  Xow, 
as  long  as  such  an  argument  is  urged  simply  with  a  view  of 

^  In  a  very  ciuioas  book  called  Thcohake  Christlance  Frmcijna  ^lailicma 
iica.     (Londiiii,  1C99.) 


398  RATIOXALISM   IN   EUROPE. 

inducing  men  to  aclojjt  a  certain  course  of  action,  it  lias  no 
necessary  connection  witli  morals,  and  should  be  judged  upon 
prudential  grounds.^  But  the  case  becomes  widely  different 
wlien  to  adoj^t  tlie  least  probable  course  means  to  acknowl- 
edge a  Church  which  demands  as  the  first  condition  of 
allegiance  an  absolute  and  heartfelt  belief  in  the  truth  of 
what  it  teaches.  When  this  is  the  case,  the  argument  of 
Pascal  means,  and  only  can  mean,  that  men  should  by  the 
force  of  will  compel  themselves  to  believe  what  they  do  not 
believe  by  the  force  of  reason ;  that  they  should  exert  all 
their  efforts,  by  withdrawing  their  attention  from  one  side 
and.  concentrating  it  upon  the  other,  and  by  the  employment 
of  the  distorting  influences  of  the  affections,  to  disturb  the 
results  of  their  judgment.  l!^or  is  this  merely  the  specula- 
tion of  some  isolated  mathematicians ;  it  is  a  princijile  that 
is  constantly  acted  on  in  every  society  which  is  governed  by 
the  doctrine  we  are  considering.^  Mere  sophisms  or  imj^er- 
fect    reasonings  have    a   very   small    place   in   tlie    history 

*  The  readei'  may  find  a  review  of  it  made  on  those  grounds  in  Laplace, 
Theorie  des  ProbahUitls.  It  is  manifest  that,  if  correct,  obedience  would  be 
due  to  any  impostor  who  said  he  dreamed  that  he  was  a  Divine  messenger, 
provided  he  put  his  promises  and  threatenings  sufficiently  high. 

^  Thus  in  the  seventeenth  century  the  following  was  a  popular  Catholic 
argument.  Protestants  admit  that  Catholics  may  be  saved,  but  Catholics  deny 
'hat  Protestants  can  ;  therefore  it  is  better  to  become  a  Catholic.  Considering 
that  this  argument  was  designed,  by  playing  on  superstitious  terrors,  and  by 
obscuring  the  sense  of  the  Divine  goodness,  to  induce  men  to  tamper  with 
their  sense  of  truth,  and  considering  too  that  its  success  depended  mainly  on 
the  timidity,  self-distrust,  and  modesty  of  the  person  to  whom  it  was  addressed, 
it  may  probably  be  regarded  as  thoroughly  base  and  demoralising  as  any  that 
it  is  even  possible  for  the  imagination  to  conceive.  Yet  it  was  no  doubt  very 
effective,  and  was  perfectly  in  harmony  with  the  doctrine  we  are  considermg. 
Selden  asked,  '  Is  their  Church  better  than  ours,  because  it  has  less  charity  V ' 
and  Bedell,  in  a  passage  whicl:  Coleridge  justly  pronounced  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  in  English  prose,  compared  the  two  churches  in  this  respect  to  the 
rival  mothers  before  Solomon. 


ON   PERSECUTION.  399 

of  human  error;  the  intervention  of  the  will  has  always 
been  the  chief  cause  of  dehision.  Under  the  best  circum- 
stances we  can  but  imperfectly  guard  against  its  influence ; 
but  wherever  the  doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation  is  held,  it 
is  reduced  to  a  system  and  regarded  as  a  virtue. 

Certainly,  whatever  opinion  may  be  held  concerning  the 
general  tendencies  of  the  last  three  centuries,  it  is  impossible 
to  deny  the  extraordinary  difiiision  of  a  truthful  spirit,  as 
manifested  both  in  the  increased  intolerance  of  what  is  false 
and  in » the  increased  suspicion  of  what  is  doubtful.  This 
has  been  one  of  the  general  results  of  advancing  civilisation 
to  which  all  intellectual  influences  have  converged,  but  the 
improvement  may  be  said  to  date  more  especially  from  the 
Avritings  of  the  great  secular  philosophers  of  the  seventeenth 
ceutury.  These  philosophers  destroyed  the  old  modes  of 
thought,  not  by  the  force  of  direct  polemical  discussion,  but 
by  introducing  a  method  of  enquiry  and  a  standard  of  ex- 
cellence incompatible  with  them.  They  taught  men  to 
esteem  credulity  discreditable,  to  wage  an  unsparing  war 
against  their  prejudices,  to  distrust  the  verdicts  of  the  past, 
and  to  analyse  with  cautious  scrutity  the  foundation  of  their 
belief  They  taught  them,  above  all,  to  cultivate  that  love 
of  truth  for  its  own  sake  which  is  perhaps  the  highest  attri- 
bute of  humanity ;  which  alone  can  emancipate  the  mind 
from  the  countless  influences  that  enthral  it,  and  guide  the 
steps  through  the  labyrinth  of  human  systems ;  which  shrinks 
from  the  sacrifice  of  no  cherished  doctrine,  and  of  no  ancient 
tie ;  and  which,  recognising  in  itself  the  reflex  of  the  Deity, 
finds  in  itself  its  own  reward. 

The  conspicuous  place  which  Bacon,  Descartes,  and 
Locke  have  obtained  in  the  history  of  the  human  mind, 
depends  much  less  on  the  originality  of  their  doctrines  or 


400  EATIOXALISM   IX    EUEOPE. 

their  methods  than  on  the  skill  -with  which  they  developed 
and  diffused  them.  Long  before  Descartes,  St.  Augustine 
had  anticipated  the  '  cogito  ergo  sum ; '  but  that  which  St. 
Augustine  had  thrown  out  as  a  mere  truism,  or,  at  best,  as  a 
passing  suggestion,  Descartes  converted  into  the  basis  of  a 
great  philosophy.  Half  a  century  before  Bacon,  Leonardo 
da  Yinci  had  discovered  the  superiority  of  the  inductive 
method,  and  had  clearly  stated  its  principles ;  but  even  if 
Leonardo  had  published  his  work,  it  may  be  safely  asserted 
that  the  magnificent  development  of  Bacon  was  necessary 
to  make  that  method  supreme  in  science.  Each  of  these 
great  men  attacked  with  vast  ability  and  marvellous  success 
some  intellectual  vice  which  lay  at  the  very  root  of  the  old 
habits  of  thought.  Descartes  taught  that  the  beginning  of 
all  knowledge  was  the  rejection  of  every  early  prejudice, 
and  a  firm  resolution  to  bring  every  opinion  to  the  test  of 
individual  judgment.  Locke  taught  the  necessity  of  map- 
ping out  the  limits  of  human  faculties,  and  by  his  doctrine 
concerning  innate  ideas,  and  above  all  by  his  masterly 
analysis  of  Enthusiasm,  he  gave  the  deathblow  to  the  oj^in- 
ions  of  those  who  would  remove  a  certain  class  of  mental 
phenomena  altogether  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  reason.^ 
Bacon,  whose  gigantic  intellect  made  excursions  into  every 
field,  was  pre-eminently  noted  for  his  classification  of  the 
idola  or  distorting  infiuences  that  act  on  the  mind,  and  for 

^  It  has  been  observed  by  a  very  able  French  critic  (M.  Littre)  that  the 
increasing  tendency,  as  civihsation  advances,  to  substitute  purely  psychological 
for  miraculous  solutions  is  strikingly  illustrated  by  a  comparison  of  Orestes 
with  Hamlet.  The  subject  of  both  pieces  is  essentially  the  same — a  murdered 
king,  a  guilty  wife,  a  son  distracted  between  his  duty  to  his  dead  father  and  to 
his  living  mother ;  but  while  the  Greek  found  it  necessary  to  bring  the  Furies 
upon  the  scene  to  account  for  the  mental  paroxysms  of  Orestes,  the  English- 
man deemed  the  natural  play  and  conflict  of  the  emotions  amply  sufficient  to 
account  for  the  sufferings  of  Hamlet. 


ox    PEKSECUTIOX.  401 

his  constant  injunction  to  correct  theory  by  confronting  it 
with  facts.  Descartes  also,  in  addition  to  the  vast  intrinsic 
value  of  his  works,  had  the  immense  merit  of  doing  more 
than  any  previous  writer  to  divorce  philosophy  from  erudi- 
tion, and  to  make  it  an  aj^peal  to  the  reasoning  powers  of 
ordinary  men.  The  schoolmen,  though  they  had  carried 
philosophical  definition  almost  to  tlie  highest  conceivable 
point  of  perfection,  had  introduced  a  style  of  disquisition  so 
pedantic  and  monotonous,  so  full  of  subtle  distinctions  and 
endless  repetitions,  that  all  but  the  most  patient  students 
were  repelled  by  their  works ;  while  their  constant  appeal 
to  authority,  and  the  flict  that  they  wrote  only  in  Latin,  ex- 
cluded those  who  were  but  little  Learned  from  the  discussion. 
The  great  prominence  academic  praelections  obtained  about 
the  time  of  the  Reformation  contributed,  I  imagine,  largely 
to  introduce  a  simpler  and  more  popular  style.  Rather  more 
than  sixty  years  before  '  The  Method '  of  Descartes,  Ramus, 
in  his  '  Dialectics,'  had  set  the  example  of  publishing  a 
philosophical  work  in  French,  and  Bruno  had  thrown  some 
of  his  dreamy  speculations  into  Italian ;  but  neither  of  these 
men  was  sufficiently  able  to  form  a  new  epoch  in  the  his- 
tory of  philosophy,  and  their  ends  were  not  calculated  to  en- 
courage imitators — the  first  having  been  murdered  by  the 
Catholics  on  the  night  of  St.  Bartholomew,  and  the  second 
burnt  alive  at  Rome  by  the  Pope.  Descartes  more  than 
any  one  else  was  the  author  of  what  may  be  called  the  demo- 
cratic character  of  philosoj^hy,  and  this  is  not  the  least  of 
liis  merits.  The  influence  of  Locke  and  Bacon,  again,  was 
especially  powerful  as  a  corrective  of  the  old  tendency  to 
fiction,  on  account  of  a  certain  unimaginative  character  that 
was  exhibited  by  the  philosophies  of  both — a  cliaracter  that 
was  perfectly  congenial  to  the  intellect  of  Locke,  but  very 

VOL.  l.—2(\ 


402  EATIOXALTSM   IX   EUEOPE. 

remarkable  in  the  case  of  Bacon,  among  -^^liose  great  facul- 
ties imagination  occupied  an  almost  disproportionate  promi- 
nence. That  this  feature  of  the  Baconian  philosophy  is  at 
present  exercising  a  decidedly  prejudicial  influence  on  the 
English  intellect,  by  producing  an  excessive  distaste  for  the 
higher  generalisations,  and  for  all  speculations  that  do  not 
lead  directly  to  practical  results,  has  been  maintained  by 
many  Continental  Avriters,  and  by  at  least  three  of  the  most 
eminent  English  oues.^  It  is,  indeed,  quite  true  that  Bacon 
never  went  in  this  respect  so  far  as  some  of  his  disciples. 
He  certainly  never  made  utility  the  sole  object  of  science,  or 
at  least  never  restricted  utility  to  material  advantages.  He 
asserted  in  the  noblest  language  the  superiority  of  abstract 
truth  to  all  the  fruits  of  invention,'  and  would  never  have 
called  those  speculations  useless  which  form  the  intellectual 
character  of  an  age.  Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  must  be 
acknowledged  that  the  general  tone  of  his  writings,  the 
extraordinary  emphasis  Avhich  he  laid  upon  the  value  of  ex- 
periments, and  above  all  upon  the  bearing  of  his  philosophy 
on  material  comforts,  represents  a  tendency  which  was  very 
naturally  developed  into  the  narrowest  utilitarianism.  Those 
who  regarded  natural  science  simply  as  the  minister  to  the 
material  comforts  of  mankind  were  the  disciples  of  Bacon, 
in  much  the  same  sense  as  Condillac  and  his  followers  were 
the  disciples  of  Locke :  they  did  not  accurately  represent  the 

*  Coleridge,  Buckle,  and  Mill. 

"  '  And  yet  (to  speak  the  whole  truth),  just  as  we  are  deeply  iudebted  to 
light  because  it  enables  us  to  enter  on  our  way,  to  exercise  arts,  to  read,  to 
distinguish  one  another,  and  nevertheless  the  sight  of  light  is  itself  more  ex- 
cellent and  beautiful  than  the  manifold  uses  of  it ;  so,  assuredly,  the  very  con- 
templation of  things  as  they  are,  without  superstition  or  imposture,  without 
error  or  confusion,  is  in  itself  more  worthy  than  all  the  produce  of  discoveries.' 
{yovnm  Organon.) 


ON    PERSECUTION.  403 

doctrines  of  their  master,  but  thej  represented  the  general 
tendency  of  his  teaching. 

But,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  influence  which  the 
inductive  philosophy  now  exercises  on  the  ^^nglish  mind, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  both  that  philosophy  and  the 
essay  of  Locke  were  peculiarly  fatal  to  the  mediaeval  modes 
of  thought  on  account  of  the  somewhat  plodding  character 
they  displayed.  By  enlarging  the  domain  of  the  senses,  by 
making  experience  the  final  test  of  truth,  and  by  greatly 
discouraging  the  excursions  of  theorists,  they  checked  the 
exuberance  of  the  European  imagination,  imparted  an  air  of 
grotesqueness  to  the  wild  fictions  that  had  so  long  been  re- 
ceived, and  taught  men  to  apply  tests  both  to  their  tradi- 
tions and  to  their  emotions  which  divested  them  of  much  of 
their  apparent  mystery.  It  was  from  the  writings  of  Locke 
and  Bacon  that  Voltaire  and  his  followers  drew  the  prin- 
ciples that  shattered  the  proudest  ecclesiastical  fabrics  of 
Europe,  and  it  is  against  these  philosophers  that  the  ablest 
defenders  of  mediaeval  theology  have  exhibited  the  most 
bitter  animositv.^ 


^  Thus  Dc  Maistrc,  the  gr^at  apostle  of  modern  Ultramontanisni,  assures  U3 
that  'dans  I'etude  de  la  philosophie,  le  mopris  de  Locke  est  le  commencement 
de  la  sagesse  ; '  and  that '  VEssai  sur  V Entendement  Humain  est  tres-certaine- 
ment,  ct  soit  qu'on  le  nie  ou  qu'on  en  convienne,  tout  ce  que  le  dcfaut  absolu 
de  genie  et  de  style  pent  enfanter  de  plus  assommant.'  {Soirees  de  St.  Peters- 
'->ourg^  6™®  Entretien.)  Bacon  he  calmly  terms  '  un  charlatan,'  and,  speaking 
of  his  greatest  works,  says  :  '  Le  l^re  De  la  Dignite  ct  de  V Accroissemcnt  des 
Sciences  est  done  un  ouvrage  parfaitement  nul  et  meprisable.  .  .  .  Quant 
an  Novum  Organon^  il  est  bicn  plus  condamnable  encore,  puisque,  indepen- 
damment  des  erreurs  particulieres  dont  il  fourmille,  le  but  general  dc  I'ouvrage 
le  rend  digne  d'un  Bedlam.'  (Examcii  de  la  Philosophie  de  Paeon.)  In  the 
same  way,  though  in  very  different  language,  the  Tvactarian  party,  and  espe- 
cially Dr.  Newman  (both  before  and  after  his  conversion),  have  been  cease- 
lessly carping  at  the  psychology  of  Locke  and  the  inductive  philosophy  of 
Bacon. 


4:04  EATIOXiiLISM   IN   EUEOPE. 

It  was  thus  tliat  the  great  teachers  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  who  were  tliemselves  but  the  highest  representa- 
tives of  the  tendencies  of  their  age,  disciplined  the  minds  of 
men  for  impartial  enquiry,  and,  having  broken  the  spell  that 
so  long  had  bound  them,  produced  a  passionate  love  of  truth 
v/hich  has  revolutionised  all  departments  of  knowledge.  It 
is  to  the  impulse  which  was  then  communicated  that  may  be 
traced  the  great  critical  movement  which  has  renovated  all 
history,  all  science,  all  theology — which  has  penetrated  into 
the  obscurest  recesses,  destroying  old  prejudices,  dispelling 
illusions,  rearranging  the  various  j^arts  of  our  knowledge, 
and  altering  the  whole  scope  and  character  of  our  sympa- 
thies. But  all  this  would  have  been  impossible  but  for  the 
diffusion  of  a  rationalistic  spirit  obscuring  or  destroying  the 
notion  of  the  guilt  of  error.  For,  as  we  have  seen,  whenever 
the  doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation  is  generally  believed  and 
realised,  habits  of  thought  will  be  formed  around  it  that  are 
diametrically  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  enquiry  and  absolutely 
incompatible  with  human  progress.  An  indifference  to  truth, 
a  spirit  of  blind  and  at  the  same  time  wilful  credulity,  will 
be  encouraged,  which  will  multiply  fictions  of  every  kind, 
will  associate  enquiry  vvdth  the  ideas  of  danger  and  of  guilt, 
will  make  men  esteem  that  imjDartiality  of  judgment  and 
study  which  is  the  yerj  soul  of  truth,  an  unholy  thing,  and 
will  so  emasculate  their  faculties  as  to  produce  a  general 
torpor  on  every  subject.  For  the  different  elements  of  our 
knowledge  are  so  closely  united  that  it  is  impossible  to  di- 
vide them  into  separate  compartments,  and  to  make  a  sj^irit 
of  credulity  preside  over  one  compartment  while  a  spirit  of 
enquiry  is  animating  the  others.  In  the  middle  ages  tlicol- 
ogy  was  supreme,  and  the  spirit  of  that  theology  was  abso- 
hitc  credulity,   and  the   same  spirit  was    speedily  diffused 


ox    PERSECUTION.  405 

through  all  forms  of  thought.  In  the  seveutoenth  century 
the  preeminence  of  theology  was  no  longer  decisive,  and  the 
great  secular  writers  introduced  a  love  of  impartiality  and 
of  free  research  which  rapidly  passed  from  natural  science 
and  metaphysics  into  theology,  and  destroyed  or  weakened 
all  those  doctrines  Avhich  were  repugnant  to  it.  It  Avas  be- 
iween  the  writings  of  Bacon  and  Locke  that  Chillingworth 
taught,  for  the  first  or  almost  for  the  first  time  in  England, 
the  absolute  innocence  of  honest  error.  It  was  between  the 
writings  of  Bacon  and  Locke  that  that  latitudinarian  school 
was  formed  which  was  irradiated  by  the  genius  of  Taylor, 
Glanvil,  and  Hales,  and  which  became  the  very  centre  and 
seedplot  of  religious  liberty.  It  was  between  the  same 
writings  that  the  writ  De  Hoeretico  comhurendo  was  ex- 
punged from  the  Statute  Book,  and  the  soil  of  England  fov 
the  last  time  stained  with  the  misbeliever's  blood  ! 


END    OF   THE    FIRST   VOLUME. 


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Sargent.  A  new  and  revised  edition.  1  vol.,  12mo,  with  Portraits 
of  the  Author  and  Editor.     Price,  $2.50. 

This  work  is  an  important  contribution  to  our  historical  literature—"  a  volume."  says 
Iiobert  0.  Winthrop,  '"full  of  attractive  and  valuable  matter,  and  disjilaying  the  fruit  of 
rich  culture  and  rare  accomplishments."  The  '•  Life  of  Andre "'  has  been  fortunate 
in  receiving  the  commendation,  at  home  and  abroad,  of  careful  critics  and  distinguished 
historians. 

THE     TWO     GUAEDIAXS;      OE     IIO^LE     IX 

THIS  WORLD.  Py  the  author  of  "  The  Heir  of  RedclyfTe."  1  vol., 
121110.  Cloth.  Price,  $1.00.  Forming  one  of  the  volumes  of  the 
new  illustrated  edition  of  Miss  Yonae's  popular  novels.  Volumes 
nheudy  published:  "The  Heir  of  Redclyffe,"  2  vols.;  "  Hcarts- 
c'.isc,"  2  vols. ;  "  Daisy  Chain,"  2  vols. ;  "  Beechcroft,"  1  vol. 


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